


Team FLME: Volume 8

by Super_Human456



Category: Original Work, RWBY, Team FLME
Genre: Army, Cyborgs, Desert, F/M, Fortress, Frollo - Freeform, Grimm (RWBY), OC Team, Original Team, Shade Academy (RWBY), Side Story, Spinoff, Theodore (RWBY) - Freeform, Vacuo (RWBY), War Story, ships, tower, vacuo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-21 20:47:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 41,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30027624
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Super_Human456/pseuds/Super_Human456
Summary: The time to reorganize Vacuo is now! The need to defend the people has never been higher. It is now or never to decide how the war will go. Either towards Onyx...or the ragtag resistance.Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.  All characters from RWBY are own by Rooster Teeth.  All RWBY OCs within this story are owned by me.
Relationships: Amethyst Eclairage/Apatite Eclairage, Ember Ignis/May Fumi, Mason Ignis/Evie Ignis





	1. The Great Train Heist

In a black void, some voices are heard in the background. 

Mason: Do you remember your objective?

Ember: Don’t mess up. Don’t screw around. Got it.

Violet: Three trains. Each with gear. We hit them each, get the gear and bolt. No huss no fuss. 

May: We are in position. 

Mason: Copy. Get to work. 

Llew: Moving in. 

Leia: Crap, crap! Stier, Stier, Stier!

Ember: Oh here we go. 

Stier: (Chuckles) You have no idea the kind of trouble you are in. 

Colonel Vincent Stier chuckles again as the scene cuts from black to Leia Burns slamming her clubs up against Stier’s arms. After three hits, Ember Ignis appears and tries to kick Stier in the chest, but he fails as the Colonel leaps backward and avoids the attack. Stier throws out two punches towards Ember, who blocks them. Stier goes in for a roundhouse kick and barely misses Ember. Ember leaps back as Leia goes in for a strike. Stier flips her over his person. From his now metallic arms, Stier extends two chainsaw wrist blades and yells as he blocks an attack from both Leia and Ember. 

The three continue to fight one another as further down the train, Berningals begin to board. One roars but is shot through the head by May Fumi. She cocks her sniper rifle and fires again. A Nevermore screeches and attempts to dive-bomb her but May backflips and runs along the mountain wall beside the train and cuts the Grimm’s head off. May flips again as an Ombre bullhead comes into view and opens fire at her. She blocks a few rounds with her sword. Leia forms a shield in front of May and stops the bullets but is punched in the face by Stier. 

Ember gets behind the colonel and suplexes him onto the train’s roof. Ember grabs Stier’s shoulders, flips over him and throws the colonel along the train. He then leaps back and joins Leia and May underneath Leia’s shield. Another bullhead arrives and opens fire at the shield. 

Ember: Violet! How we doing?!

All the way to the front of the train, Violet Eclairage and the rest of Team VILE are at the engine. Violet has several wires in her hand, using her semblance to short circuit them as her team watches. 

Violet: Oh, I’m sorry. Do you want to short circuit a bullet train going 150 miles per hour?! 

Leia: We could use assistance here! Two bullheads and the Colonel! 

Violet: Understood! Eadwulf, see what you can’t do with him!

Eadwulf: Right!

Violet: Llew! Takedown those ships! (Llew nods before she teleports away) Ing, I need you here with me. Your arm’s still to jacked for this. 

Ing: I know, I know. 

Ing walks over and begins to use his semblance to freeze some of the wires. 

Back on top of the train, the three members of FLME are standing under Leia’s shield. Stier slowly walks towards them, his wrist blades at the ready. As he walks in closer, Llew appears on one of the bullhead’s roof’s and cuts the cockpit open. Stier turns around after he hears clanking and sees Eadwulf running towards him. Eadwulf dives past Stier gets to his feet and throws a punch towards Stier. Leia lowers her shield. 

Leia: GO!

Leia runs towards Eadwulf as May and Ember start to fire at the bullheads. Eadwulf blocks a strike from Stier but is still kicked back. Leia flips over Stier and whacks him in the face twice until Stier pushes her clubs back and kicks her in the face. She slides back and stops right beside Eadwulf. Eadwulf takes his knives out and throws them towards Stier. 

Stier barely dodges a few but is able to catch on in his mouth and spit it out.

Eadwulf: BURNS!!!

Eadwulf: Seriously?! Why is it that wherever we go, someone is out to kill you?!

Leia: It’s me! I give a lot of people boners.

Eadwulf cocks an eyebrow and looks at her.

Leia: NOT IN THAT WAY!!!  
Stier charges towards them and punches the ground where they once stood. Leia fires a few rounds at Stier who blocks them with his metallic arms. Eadwulf swings and hits Stier in the face and sends him back along the train. 

Violet: (Over Radio) CRAP! Tunnel, tunnel, tunnel!

Leia: HIT THE DECK!!!

Leia leaps to the side of the train and grabs ahold of the roof and smashes through a window. Eadwulf leaps down between cars and gets back inside. Stier turns around and is met with Ember’s fist in his face as he grabs May bridal style as they slide between cars as well. Stier gets to his feet and goes to an earpiece. 

Stier: Alpha, circle around and cut them off. Bravo, follow us inside. I’ll flush them out. 

Stier’s wrist blades disappear into his metal arm as two large cannons now emerge from where the blade is. Stier steps down in-between cars just as the tunnel approaches. 

Cut to a black with “TEAM FLME: VOLUME 8” in red text emerge.   
____________________________________________________________  
A fade into the Citadel as Onyx stands in front of The Doctor (Damson Shade), and Lavender Kristal. In front of him is Roa Quarzo with a cyberborg version of Dr. Lavenza Volt. Well alive. The Doctor gasps and grips his head. He laughs to himself sickly and clenches himself down. Finally, his yellow eyes turn to blue and Damson returns and gasps.

Damson: He…lives?!

Standing before them is Lavenza Volt, alive with a cybernetic right eye, arm, and leg. 

Onyx: Lavenza? (Laughs) Just the tactical advantage I require.

Onyx walks up to Lavenza. The doctor slowly bows down onto one knee. 

Lavenza: Lord Onyx. I apologize for my absence. 

Onyx: So it would seem. Arise. 

Lavenza slowly stands back up. As he does, his cybernetic right arm forms into a welder as he works on his leg a little bit. 

Onyx: I had thought you perished in your laboratory. 

Lavenza: Well, as they say, news of my death was greatly premature.   
A fade back to the Battle of Lavenza’s Lab. 

Lavenza: The explosion caused by the destruction of Project Judicator left me scarred…burned. 

As the above is spoken, the explosion goes off. Later that night, Lavenza slowly awakens, his right arm under rubble and his left leg burned and broken. He slowly turns his head to show his right eye is completely gone, nothing but blood now.

Lavenza: I became clear I was marooned in my laboratory with no forms of communication. So…I knew what I had to do.

As the above is spoken, Lavenza reaches out with his left arm and grabs the remnants of his bayonet. He yells and aims it right down towards his arm. 

Lavenza: In time, I repaired my wounds and resumed my experiments. The solitude gave me time for tremendous advancements in my research. 

As the above is spoken, Lavenza is seen with his cybernetic body, working with some chemicals and a small terminal. A screen lights up. 

Lavenza: One day, my instruments detected dust radiation, similar to a cruiser. So, I chose to investigate and found your search party, not the one I was expecting so long ago.

As the above is spoken, Lavenza leaps down from some platforms and alerts some of the Ombre troops. Roz steps forward as Lavenza steps into the light. She slow smiles as he walks up to her. Fade back to present day. 

Lavenza: Which leaves one unanswered question: Why was I abandoned? Left to rot?

Onyx, Lavender, and Roz all turn back to Damson as Lavenza slowly steps forward. 

Lavenza: Why?

Damson’s scared face is reflected in Lavenza’s eye. 

Damson: The-the explosion caused by those brats left your central systems on loop and caused explosion after explosion. No one saw you come out. We feared the worst! 

Lavenza: That response…is logical. 

Onyx places an arm on Lavenza’s shoulder and slowly ushers him back to the Citadel’s chambers. 

Onyx: Regardless. It is good to have you back now, Doctor. 

Lavenza: Indeed. Now then…my laboratory.   
_________________________________________________________  
Inside a room of the Citadel, the door opens to reveal it is Lavender’s room. She closes the door and locks it before sighing to herself. As she sits on her bed, a falcon flies into her room and lands on her desk. She looks up and walks over to it and grabs a small slip of paper from around its neck before petting it softly. She reads over the note and nods a little.

Lavender: So Farkas, wants to step it up a bit. Fine then. 

Lavender quickly writes down notes and slips it into the falcon’s message container. She points out the window and the falcon flew off. Lavender goes underneath the bed and grabs a small switch. She sighs and presses a button.   
_______________________________________________________  
Back in Fort Frollo, explosions go off left and right. Several beams fall down and crush construction workers. Another one walks by, on firing and yelling as she grabs his head and falls to the ground dead. 

Back to Lavender, she smirks and licks her lips a little as he sees her secret bank accounts grow in funds.   
_________________________________________________________  
Back to the train heist, Leia, May, Ember and Eadwulf run back into the engine as Llew teleports in and Violet and Ing continue to work on the wires. Ing glances back and taps Violet on her shoulder and gestures over to the rest of the team. Violet sighs and stands back up and places her staff along her back. 

Violet: Alright. I got good news and bad news.

Leia: Hit me.

Violet: Well, they’ve updated security since the last time we were able to infiltrate. 

Leia: We never infiltrated them. 

Violet: Hey, don’t interrupt me.

Leia: Just did. So, if you don’t mind.

Violet: Hey! Team leader here!

Leia: Hey. HIS number 2. So maybe if you would step down and-

Ember: Hey! Can we stop comparing sizes and get the job done here. 

Both Leia and Violet look at him with confused faces. Ember rolls his eyes.

Ember: Yes, I said that. Fight me.

Leia: Say that again to me, and I will throw you off this train.

Ember: No you won’t. You love me too much to do that.

Leia: Ok, you got a point there. 

May: HEY! (Everyone turns to May) When was the last time we infiltrated them?

Leia: When we…oh my God. 

Leia walks past Violet and Ing and kneels down in front of the board of wires they were once at. She places a small computer stored on her wrist down and plug in two wires to the main terminal. She pulls up a hologram and looks it over before she smirks.

Leia: We never have. Easy. EASY work! 

Leia begins to go through the system, typing away while the rest watch her. After a few seconds of typing, she stops herself and chuckles a little.

Leia: They have a self-destruct on each car? Talk about security and really wanting to kill us. But that does give me several ideas. 

Violet: We are not blowing anything up. 

Leia: We are. Just not the things we need. (She looks at a security screen) And we better move fast. Because Stier looks pissed. 

Leia sends the hologram back to show Stier marching through the train, slamming car doors open and shut as he moves towards the engine. Violet groans as she grabs her weapon. Before she can leave, Leia grabs her shoulder and stops her. 

Leia: Calm down. Wait till he gets through the ammunition supplies and food. Attack him in the troop cars. 

Violet: (Sighs) Right. So, what’s the idea here? 

Leia smirks a little. Cut to Stier, he slowly moves throughout the final ammunitions car and slowly closes the door behind him. As he gets into the new, troop car, he kneels down slightly and looks around a little bit. He lowers his cybernetic left arm and places it on the ground. He seems to be sensing through the car as he readies his massive canon. 

He fires to the right of the car, blowing up some of the wall, destroying it more and more. After six rounds, he stops firing and gets back to his feet. He grunts and begins to walk forward again. Right behind Stier, Llew teleports in with Violet and throws her towards Stier and teleports away. Stier turns around and blocks a strike from Violet’s staff. She fires her shotgun part and spins around to attack once again. 

Stier blocks her again, barely taking any damage. Llew teleports in again, this time with Ember. Llew throws Ember towards Stier and teleports away again. Ember grabs Stier’s shoulder and throws him to the back of the car. Stier flips and lands on his feet and pulls out his cannon arm and opens fire at the two. Violet and Ember quickly go into cover behind some of the seats of the car. 

Stier yells a little and starts to fire his cannon at the two, destroying more of the seats to the car. Ember takes aim only for a second and fires back at the man. A few bullets go past him but Stier blocks another one with his left arm. Violet leaps out from cover and slams her staff down on Stier’s left arm. Violet pulls her staff back and continues to attack Stier. 

Pan back to further down the train, Llew teleports back into a car and walks over to Ing and Eadwulf. Llew grabs Ing and teleports again. They appear in some of the cars towards the front. Ing and Llew set down some crates among others. These crates are full of either food, weapons or ammo. Llew teleports back and arrives in the back of the train where May is. 

May: How are we doing?

Llew: We have almost everything?

May: Violet and Ember?

Llew: I’d assume they are still holding the Colonel off. What about here?

May: Fine. But we’ve got a bullhead on our six. 

They turn to the back and see the bullhead codenamed “Bravo” appear in the tunnel, however, it does not fire. 

May: They don’t want to hit their dear leader. And we can’t damage it without it causing massive damage to the tunnel and ourselves. I’ll keep an eye on it. Just get Ing back here and start cutting the cars. I think that could buy us some time.  
Llew nodded and teleported back again as May takes aim. 

Ember and Violet continue to fight off Stier. Violet spins her staff around and goes to attack Stier again. He dodges slightly but gets kicked in the face by Ember. Ember goes for some knife slashes and Stier blocks them all. Ember converts his knives into pistols and fires some rounds towards Stier’s head. Stier grabs Ember’s wrists and pushes his arms away and kicks Ember in the stomach and knocks him back. 

Violet fires her shotgun and launches her staff towards Stier. Stier blocks it but still gets pushed back by the force. Violet runs up, jumps up and grabs her staff. She lands and spins around and slams her staff onto Stier’s arm and fires again. She spins around with greater force and hits Stier in the head and knocks him down. Violet uses her semblance to electrocute Stier. Stier gets up slowly and yells a little as he is slowly burned. Ember uses his semblance and runs forward and punches Stier in the face and sends him back a car. 

Ember and Violet stand together as they look to where Stier was launched. Stier slowly gets up and looks around. He sees the ammo car is practically empty. He goes to his earpiece. 

Stier: They’re clearing us out! FIRE! FIRE NOW!!!

Violet runs over to Stier and uses her semblance on him again and burns more of his body. She pulls forward with her semblance and flings Stier towards Ember who punches him in the face. Stier slides along the ground but quickly gets back up to his feet. He takes aim at the two again but his shot in the back and is launched forward back into the ammo car. 

Violet and Ember look forward and see Llew had just teleported May to the car with Ing and Eadwulf. Ing runs up and uses his semblance to freeze Stier and some of the car. Stier is able to break some of the ice and slowly makes his way back towards the teams. Llew runs up and cuts the car off from the rest as Ing continues to freeze it. May walks over to the doorway with a small detonator and presses down on it. A few of the back cars explode, causing some of the tunnel to cave in and crush the bullhead. Stier breaks free from the ice and jumps out of the car. 

Stier grabs and rips some of the tracks off of the ground and throws it towards the teams. Violet pushes her teammates out of the way as Ember grabs May and jumps backward as the track cuts through a bit of the roof before hitting the ceiling and falling back down. Stier pants a little as he sees the first 5 cars all escape from him. He goes to his earpiece. 

Stier: Alpha, report! 

Alpha: Copy sir. We are about to make contact with the enemy now.

Stier: Good. No survivors. 

The six make their way to the engine to see Leia closing her scroll. She smiles at them as they approach. 

Leia: Told you guys it would work. 

Violet: Alright, Alright. Got me there. Now what? 

Leia: Now we are home free. 

Eadwulf: And we get back to our route towards the capital by…?

Leia: Well-

May: Incoming!

They all turn to the front window and see the end of the bullhead with the Alpha Bullhead outside. Leia smirks as three cannon shots are heard and the bullhead is shot down and destroyed. Leia goes to the terminal and slows it down a bit. Once they get outside, she stops outright as some airships pass over her. From them, a man lowers himself down on a cable.

Captain: Ms. Burns! Are you alright?!

Leia: Don’t worry about me. Get these cars hooked up to the cables and get us back to Vacuo fast! He could still be on us!

Captain: Yes, Ma’am!

The Burns Industry ships begin to move to hook up the cars to cables and carry them back to Vacuo. Violet watches and goes to her scroll and calls her father. 

Violet: Train 1 is cleared. We’re all coming home. 

Apatite: Nice work, Sweetheart! 

Violet: Yeah…(She looks at Leia) It was good work.   
__________________________________________________________  
In the vast desert of Vacuo, a man is seen walking with a large staff and robes on. Several shots of this man walking through the desert are shown as he moves little by little to his destination. He moves slowly over several hills until he finally arrives over a dune and looks out to see a massive mountain. 

A massive gust of wind blows past the man’s head and his hood fell off. The man is revealed to be Frederic Scorch, now with a small beard. Another gust of wind blows the robe off of him and reveals his usual attire, torn a little and full of sand. 

Fred cracks his neck as he begins to make his way towards the mountain. 

Primus: (Voice) Welcome, Frederic. To the Temple of Rou!

Fred doesn’t pay attention to him and keeps walking towards the mountain. 

Scene cuts to black.


	2. Betrayal

After the opening, Damson is seen standing outside the entryway to Volt’s old lab within the Citadel. He growls a little bit as he looks around the hallway. Suddenly one of his eyes becomes yellow while the other stays blue. 

The Doctor: We should do in.

Damson: NO! Can’t you see?! (Chuckles) He’ll kill us!

The Doctor: I highly doubt that. You gave him the half-truth.

Damson: He’s too smart! He’ll kill us and-

The Doctor: I highly doubt the Master would have us killed. We still got our work done and-

Damson: YOU DONT UNDERSTAND!!! 

Damson laughs a little as both his eyes become yellow. 

The Doctor: Fine then!

The Doctor assumes control and steps forward a little. Damson quickly takes control and together they almost seem to fight over the body they share. They clench their head and slam into the wall, yelling slightly as they each fight for control. They yell again as they are flung into the door and throw it open. They yell again as on the far side of the lab, both Onyx and Lavenza stand. They turn to look at Damson and The Doctor fighting for control. 

Onyx: Damson?!

Damson: PLEASE-

The Doctor: MASTER HELP ME!!!

Damson and The Doctor: STOP HIM PLEASE!!!

Onyx and Lavenza look at one another again. Onyx nods and Lavenza goes over to his desk and grabs a syringe and walks over to Damson’s body. As Lavenza approaches, Damson sees him and pushes himself back with his legs with some fear. 

Damson: NO! Lavenza! Stay away!

The Doctor: Master! You can’t-

Damson: Please don’t! I don’t want to! I don’t want to die today!

The Doctor: He won’t kill-

Lavenza kneels down and grabs Damson’s hair and pulls a little to expose his neck. He injects the syringe into Damson’s neck and slowly Damson calms down as his eyes turn into their natural bright blue color. Lavenza stands up as Onyx walks over to him and kneels down in front of Damson. 

Onyx: Damson. Are you alright? 

Damson: I…(gulps and regains composure) Yes, Master. I am fine. 

Onyx: Good. 

Onyx offers Damson a hand up which he quickly takes. Onyx walks back to Lavenza’s desk as Volt looks over to Damson and follows Onyx. Damson gulps again and quickly follows the two. Damson clears his throat as he approaches Onyx. 

Damson: So. What appears to be the plan now? 

Onyx: Oh same as ever. Now with Dr. Volt back, we can now move faster with the fusion cannons and begin the assault on Vacuo. 

Damson: Dr...Volt? That was my work! MY research and-

Onyx: That syringe was a sterilizing agent meant to put down your other personalities for some time. There is only one I do need. And that’s you. Dr. Volt will resume your work and his post as head of science and development. 

Lavenza: I will begin work immediately, sir. 

Onyx: See to it that you do. I am DONE wasting time. The Guardian is alive, which means he can return. Vacuo is fully aware of our presence and our expeditions into their territory. It is only a matter of time until Theodore rallies what citizens he can for a fighting force and advances. Our objective is now to stab the heart and rip it out. Which is where you come into play, Damson. 

Damson: Yes, Master?

Onyx: I want you to do what you do best. I want you to assassinate Vacuo political heads. No mercy. No qualms. 

Damson chuckles a little bit. Onyx turns to Lavenza and nods and Volt begins to leave the room. As he does, Damson begins to break down more into a laughing fit, enjoying the prospects of the murder of innocents. As he does laugh, the doors to the lab slam shut and Damson’s laughter can still be heard throughout the citadel.   
_____________________________________________________  
Roz is seen standing in the hanger bay of the citadel, looking out across the fields of black linger around the Citadel. Roz clearly looks annoyed as Lavender walks inside and over to Roz. The two stand next to one another for some time until Lavender coughs a bit to get her attention. 

Roz: What?

Lavender: Oh nothing much. Another explosion at the Fort. 

Roz: Another one. That’s the second one this month. 

Lavender: What can I say, those boys do not know how to build. 

Roz: Onyx will have our heads. 

Lavender: Psh, no he won’t. We’re too good for that. 

Roz: You really think that, don’t you?

Lavender: …(Smirks) Yes. 

Roz: How? Aren’t you at least a bit frighten by what he could do to us?! What can do to us even after we’re killed by him?! Or is your greedy little mind so held up on her own goals that you fail to see the bigger picture?!

Lavender: Listen, chief. I go where the money takes me. And it just so happens the money takes me here. Not your fault. Well, it is. You had the funds. 

Lavender laughs a little bit as Roz glares at her slightly. Lavender stops herself and looks over to Roz and sighs. 

Lavender: Fine. Just don’t get your tacos in a twist.

Roz: Is this all a game to you?

Lavender: Mhm...Yes! 100%!

Roz: Why can’t you take this seriously?!

Lavender: Because I have you for that! I get to goof off while you have this dramatic glare to your face at every waking moment. It’s fun and stupid at the same time!

Roz: Men are dying out there for us!

Lavender: Not my men. 

Roz: I am trying to honor his legacy and-

Lavender: Legacy?! He was a mass murderer. He threatened to kill us on several occasions. He also tried to kill you at least once. And he tried to kill Nolan once too. 

Roz looks at Lavender and then back out to the exit. Lavender sighs and walks over to her and places a hand on her shoulder fo support. Roz looks over to her and she offers up a smile. 

Lavender: Take it from me. Not as a subordinate but as a friend, not everyone here has the best interests in mind. It pays to be a little greedy at some point. Even if you refuse to do so. 

A bullhead emerges from the cloud cover and flies towards the Citadel. The two strop their conversation as the ship flies up and lands right before them. It opens and Stier steps out and walks up to the two of them. Roz grabs his arm and looks at him dead in the face. 

Roz: What happened?

Stier: Where’s Onyx? I need to-

Roz: You report to me, Colonel! Understand?!

Stier glares a bit as she releases him and Stier steps back a little. 

Stier: We were hit. Those damn kids. Two of our three trains were hit and taken. We only repealed one but they all escaped with a few bits of supplies. 

Roz: What was taken? 

Stier: Food. Ammo. Some building materials. We lost a few men too. 

Roz: Damn it. How many?

Stier: Fifteen. 

Roz pinches the bridge of her nose as she steps away. Stier rolls his eyes as he looks down at his legs. He pulls up his pant legs and looks at his legs in general. He looks up at Lavender and glares a little at her. Lavender looks back at him, glaring as well. 

Lavender: What do you want?

Stier: New legs. I’m not letting those bastards go next time. So you are going to give me new legs so I can get that job done!

Lavender looks over to Roz to see her still visibly frustrated. 

Lavender: Roz?

Roz: Do it. I don’t have time for this. Get it done. 

Roz walks off to report to Onyx as Lavender looks back to Stier. Stier walks up to her and glares a little bit. Lavender glares back a little as they walk off again. As they walk off, a seer is seen in a far corner, keeping an eye on Roz. It shows her looking frustrated and she walks off. On the other side of the seer, Onyx, Damson and Lavenza look on. Onyx rubs his chin as he thinks the development over.  
________________________________________________  
Back with Leia, Violet and their teams, they are flying towards the city of Vacuo. Surrounding the city is a massive wall with large towers. Trenches are now dug around the city as it looks like the city is preparing for an invasion. Violet looks across the city as she sees some citizens arming themselves. Llew walks over to her and places on hand on her shoulder. 

Llew: It will be ok. I promise. 

Violet: Let’s just focus on the job. 

The bullheads lower themselves down onto several landing pads. Troops walk up and unclip the cars from the cables and the bullheads land beside the crates. From the central bullhead, Leia, May, Ember, Violet, Ing, Llew and Eadwulf all step off and slowly approach the main building of Vacuo Academy. 

Violet, Ember and Leia are seen walking through the academy. Around them are some guards in loose Militia like uniforms. Some students walk by as well, however, they seem to pay no attention to the trio despite Violet looking at them with some concern. She turns back and keeps walking with the others. 

Ember: A lot more activity than usual. 

Leia: Yeah. Think Apatite is moving to pass the Military Act?

Ember: Hope so. 

Violet: Can we not talk about this?

Ember and Leia glance back to her as they see Violet looking more upset than usual. They glance at one another and then back to her. 

Ember: You good?

Violet glares a bit and keeps walking past the two. Ember and Leia look back at one another. Ember shrugs and keeps walking while Leia looks back down the hall to see some more people in Militia uniforms walk down a hall with the makeshift sign reading “ARMORY”. She sighs and walks back with the rest of the trio.  
________________________________________________  
Inside a large office, a hand is seen tapping the desk over and over again. Across from him are Mason Ignis and Apatite Eclairage. Mason looks around the room, seemingly interested in its contents while Apatite looks bored as well. The man at the desk sighs and stands up to be revealed as Professor Theodore, headmaster of Shade Academy. 

Theodore: Where are they?

Apatite: They will be here, Theodore. Would you please try and calm down. 

Theodore: I am perfectly calm. 

Apatite: Anxious then?

Theodore: Apatite, unless you have any useful information involving the task force then-

Mason: Theodore. They’ll be here. 

Theodore: My apologies, DETECTIVE, but I do not believe I asked you.

Mason: And I did not believe you to be so formal. 

Theodore: (Sighs) Well, times change. I grow bored. 

Mason: It was our first strike as an organized military to-

Theodore: Organized military, sure. We’re not Atlas. 

Apatite: Tell that to the council. When we informed them about Salem, we-

Theodore: You bring up that (The doors open to Ember, Leia and Violet) woman again...Hello Colonel. 

Violet: Don’t Colonel me, “General”. 

The men go silent as they walk up to the desk. Mason coughs and walks beside Theodore’s desk and stands with him and nods. 

Mason: Well?

Leia: Our train was captured. As was Team SSMR’s. Team WIOW had some more complications compared to the rest of us. They got their hands on some building supplies, but not much else. We were able to grab food and ammunitions. Enough to at least have a defense force ready in case. 

Ember: Maps show that those lines we hit go all the way through Examimum Fields. They are building something. Something big. 

Mason: Unlikely. Onyx is an extremist, but he’s not stupid. 

Theodore: I’m not so certain. 

Theodore gets up and walks over to the window to look out it. 

Theodore: Ever since her first strike on Beacon, we all have acted irrationally. Some of us doing more...questionable things since that day. And some things have only gotten worse. The Vacuo Slave Trade rose and was crushed under the heels of Teams SSSN and CFVY. A massive storm rushed into Examimum last week and wiped out half a mile of the entire area. Whatever is happening out there in the world, it is coming to my doorstep and it is coming fast. If you believe Major Ignis that the fat bastard is building something out there, prove it and take it down! 

Ember nods as he goes to leave the room. Leia watches as Mason walks up to her. 

Mason: We have some maps. And we do have another mission for you all. Let’s get you started. 

Leia: Right.

Mason and Leia leave the room. However, after the doors close, Violet is still standing there, some anger on her face. Apatite looks at her with some confusion as Theodore slowly turns around. 

Apatite: Violet, is something-

Violet: We aren’t Atlas, FATHER!

Apatite is taken aback by her comments as she returns her glare to Theodore. 

Violet: We shouldnt be a military state! We shouldn’t be hiding and grand standing! Making people enlist and getting people all to one area and-

Apatite: Violet, calm down and-

Theodore: No! Ms. Eclairage, on that note, you and I completely agree. 

Violet stops for a bit as she listens to Theodore. 

Theodore: Unfortunately, not everyone on the council shares your or mine Vacuoan Pride. 

Theodore glares a little at Apatite. 

Theodore: Unfortunately, I’m hamstrung by democracy. They wanted a military, so I gave them a stern bastard in command of it. So, unfortunately young lady, we’re stuck by the wheels of society. How about you go assist Major Ignis in his search. 

Violet: I don’t need to be talked down to, “General”. 

Theodore: Good then. Go find where that sleeping bastard lies and cut off his head! 

Violet: Is this an order from the General of Vacuo, or the Headmaster of Shade?

Theodore: It is an order from someone who wants to avenge his friend’s death.

Violet: Fine then. Works for me. 

Violet storms out of the room and slams the doors shut behind them. Apatite is about to go after her but Theodore raises his hand to stop him. 

Theodore: Let her. We have more important matters to discuss.   
__________________________________________________________  
Along a rocky surface, a hand slams down along it and slowly pulls up. It shows Fred slowly climbing up the mountain, little by little. After some time and some more scenes of Fred climbing, he reaches a large cliff and slowly climbs up it. As he climbs Fred is shown to have a few cuts along his arms and legs, some blood coming out but nothing too bad. 

He finally reaches the cliff and pants a little and slowly stands up. He licks his index and middle finger and places them along his cuts to stop the bleeding and to heal the wound. He winces a little as his aura slowly starts to come back. Fred looks forward when he hears humming and sees someone sitting by a fire. Fred slowly walks over to the fire as the man keeps humming a song. 

The man looks up at Fred with a large smile on his face. 

Fred: You’re the guru?

Guru: Ah yes. Welcome...Guardian. 

Scene cuts to black.


	3. Tempus et Mors

After the opening, Fred is standing in front of the Guru who still has a large smile on his face. Fred cocks an eyebrow a bit but slowly sits down next to the old man in a bit of a surprise.

Fred: How did you know?

Guru: I didn’t! 

Fred has a look of utter belief on his face. The guru then laughs a little and slaps his leg to complete the joke. 

Guru: I just assumed because no one would be crazy enough to come up here. 

Fred continues to look on in disbelief as the old man continues to laugh a little bit. He clears his throat with a cough a spits out to the side. The guru ushers Fred to sit down and he does so reluctantly. The guru grabs a bowl, fills it and hands it over to Fred. 

Guru: Want some?

Fred looks at it and takes the bowl and spoon from him and begins to eat it. The guru smirks a little as he eats too.

Guru: You can taste the rat. 

Fred stops and looks back down at the bowl. The guru keeps eating as Fred glances back to the bowl. 

Fred: (Scoffs) You kidding me? From where I just came from, this was an upgrade. 

Fred continues to eat as the guru laughs. 

Guru: Good, because-

Fred: There is no rat. It’s all herbs with some pork. Mistraili herbs mostly. 

The guru laughs a little as he keeps eating. Fred joins him as the two continue to watch the flames dance around little by little. Eventually, the guru finishes his bowl and slowly stands up and looks down at Fred. Fred looks up at him and sees him smile a bit and slowly makes his way to an entrance of a massive cave. 

Guru: So, you truly are the Guardian? Rockwell’s grandson? 

Fred: You knew my grandfather?

Guru: Ah yes. We went and established Shrine Academy in east Mistrial. 

Fred: I’m aware. So...you’re Tempus then. 

Tempus: (Bows) In the flesh.

Fred: Wouldn’t that put you in your 80’s?

Tempus: Nineties, actually. Oh, the joys of aura. Still hurts your back though. But still. 

Tempus waves him off and walks back a little. Fred stands up and walks a bit to catch up with him. 

Fred: Sir, I need your help. 

Tempus: I am aware. You look beaten. I can find you some bandages and-

Fred: I need help to kill Onyx. 

Tempus stops and stands still. He sighs and slowly turns around to look Fred in the face. 

Tempus: You may have passed Primus’ test, boy. But you have not yet passed mine. I am open to helping you. I helped your grandfather and your father. So, pray tell, Frederic, why should I bother with you? 

Fred: I’m the Guardian of Flame. It’s my job to protect this planet! 

Tempus: All because you are the Guardian you deem yourself worthy of my teachings? Fine then. Let’s see how well you far?

Tempus uses both his hands to grab his staff and leaps up and goes in for a roundhouse kick. Fred ducks under it and has a surprised look on his face. Tempus lands and Fred looks back at him. Tempus thrusts his staff towards Fred. Fred dodges it but doesn’t attack. Tempus swings back and tries to attack Fred again. Fred rolls backward to avoid the attack again but gets hit in the head with the staff as Tempus being to whack him over and over again. 

Tempus: Showing hesitation! Not good for a Guardian, now is it!

As Tempus goes in for another whack, Fred grabs the staff and pulls, throwing it back a bit and out of Tempus’ hands. Fred slowly stands up and looks at Tempus to see him hunched over a bit and weaker. 

Tempus: Are you really going to hurt an old man?

Fred: (Sighs) I’ll go grab your-(Tempus kicks Fred in the nose) OH! MOTHER OF-

Tempus kicks Fred a few more times, mostly in the face. Fred stumbles back a bit until Tempus does a two-footed kick to his stomach and knocks Fred down. Tempus grabs his staff as Fred slowly gets back up. 

Tempus: You hesitated due to my age?! I’m far younger than Onyx! So would you hesitate to attack him too?

Fred yells as he extents his blade and goes in for a slash. Tempus evades as Fred spins around with another slash. Fred places his foot into the fire and does an ax kick to the ground, launching the fire forward, but still does not hit Tempus. Tempus rolls forward and thrusts his staff upward and almost hits Fred in the throat. 

Tempus: And now the semblance comes out. Took you long enough. 

Fred growls and grabs the staff. Tempus thrusts his left hand up hits Fred in the chin, knocking him back. Tempus steps back as well as Fred readies himself again. 

Tempus: Much angrier than I thought? We will work on that a bit. 

Tempus begins to walk off again as Fred watches him. He cocks an eyebrow as Tempus walks off a bit. 

Fred: What does this even mean?

Tempus: It means training starts tomorrow morning. 

Fred watches as Tempus slowly walks off. Fred sighs and follows off again. The two of them walked into the cave that leads down into the temple. Fred runs a bit forward but Tempus whacks him again with his cane. Fred growls and turns back around. 

Tempus: Slow. 

Fred: And you told me not to hesitate. 

Tempus: That doesn’t mean one cannot slow down for an instant to take in the world.

Fred: Little hypocritical, don’t you think?

Tempus: A bit. But after all, I am an old man. 

Fred rolls his eyes as the doors to the temple close for the night.  
________________________________________________________________  
Inside an office, Ember and Violet are overlooking some maps. Violet traces with red ink down a train line to different lines throughout the kingdom. She sighs as she sits down on a crate, still looking over the maps. Violet looks back to Ember and cocks an eyebrow a bit. 

Violet: You sure there is a base out there?

Ember: Fairly positive. Based on the mining operations that have been conducted throughout the territory, the fact that building equipment was found on one of our three targets, there has to be something out there. Do we know the intended route of each target?

Violet: No we do not. 

Ember groans a little as he steps back a little. The doors open and Evie Ignis walks into the room with the two. 

Evie: How’s work going in here?

Ember: Decent at most. How was wall patrol today?

Evie: Eh, it was alright. More boring than anything else. Your father certainly has you running around a lot? What type of mission does he have you on now?

Ember: Not really his mission, but mine. 

Evie: And you two are currently trying to do what?

Ember: Trying to find Onyx’s main base of operations somewhere in Vacuo. 

Evie: Off the case. 

Ember: What?

Evie: You can cool off. And-

Mason opens the doors and walks inside. He drops several maps and some files onto the ground. All three look up at him with some confusion as he looks down at them. 

Ember: What’s all-

Mason: More missions. We found some bandits roaming around the territory. We believe they could have been responsible for the ones behind round three miles of damage to Examimum Fields. 

Evie: Mason, they have their own mission and-

Mason: Furthermore, (to Violet) Your mother wants you and your team in her office shortly. And has anyone seen Isaac, Bazaar or Elsa? 

Evie: Mason-

Mason: Can’t talk now, sweetie. Ember, we gotta roll. Get some of those files.

Ember: If we need them, why did you drop them?

Mason: Thought we had more time. That’s clearly not the case. 

Mason walked out of the room, leaving the three stunned. Violet sternly stands up and grabs her staff. 

Violet: At least I get time with my mother. 

Violet storms out of the room and walks down the hallway. Ember sighs and starts to gather up the papers. Evie walks over and quickly assists him as well. Before Ember stands up, Evie places a hand on his shoulder and looks at him. She cups his face with her hand as she looks at him lovingly. 

Evie: It will be ok. I’ll talk to your father. 

Ember: Is going to listen is the real question here, Mom. 

Evie: Well, we’ve been married for nearly 20 years. I can find my way to get through to him.

Evie leans forward and pecks Ember on the forehead and stands up and takes half of the papers in her hands. Ember looks up at her and she smiles down at him and walks off. Ember sighs, a slight smile on his face as he stands up and cracks his back a little. He takes the files and walks off.   
_______________________________________________  
Inside an office, Ember walks inside and sees Mason overlooking some missions on a hologram. Mason turns back and smiles at Ember. Ember places the files down and looks back at his father. Mason cocks an eyebrow as Ember seems more upset than anything else. 

Mason: What is it?

Ember: Well, considering you have us running mission after mission. Dad, we have only been back for a few hours. We can’t keep running missions left and right. 

Mason: You enlisted to be a huntsman. You are a huntsman. Look, kiddo, I know you’ve been through a lot and-

Ember: Dad, try to understand. You aren’t running around in the field all too often. 

Mason: I’m busy trying to organize everything! You know how hard it can be trying to run a standing army and the Wolf Tribe, and-

Ember: AND YOU WEREN’T THERE WHEN HE DIED!!!

Mason and Ember stop as they look at one another. Mason releases a low growl, but Ember doesn't stop in his stance. Mason sighs and leans back a little, however, he mutters something and stands right back up and walks over to Ember. Mason looks down at his son but Ember keeps up the glare. 

Mason: Ember, I-

Ember: Save it!

Mason: Don’t you dare get aggressive with me.

Ember: I just did. What are you going to do about it?!

Mason: Simple. Your mission. 

Mason walks back to his desk and pulls up the holograms again. On there are some reports about bandits and other robbers throughout the outskirts of the kingdom. An emblem also appears and moves itself to the far right corner of the hologram. 

Mason: I want you and May to take these bandits out. According to reports, they have been conducting hit and runs. Stealing supplies back from the field and running back into the desert. They have been all over the outskirts, but they seem to be centralized in this area here. (Mason points on the map) You two take them out, find out where they are hiding and get our supplies back! Do you understand?!

Ember growls slightly and begins to walk out of the room. Once the doors close and yell a bit and punch a hole into the wall opposite the room. Ember huffs as he keeps walking down the hallway, anger still on his face.   
_________________________________________  
Violet sternly walks down the hallway and stops in front of a room labeled “General Eclairage”. She sighs and walks inside to see her mother is throwing arrows at a dartboard. Amethyst turns her head and sees Violet walk inside and close the door behind her. 

Violet: (Sarcastically) General?!

Amethyst: Ok, stop that right now.

Violet: My sarcasm?

Amethyst: No, the military rank thing. I hate it. 

Amethyst walks over to a small sitting area and sits down across from Violet. Amethyst gestures for Violet to speak and she just rolls her eyes in response. 

Amethyst: I know, I know. I tried to talk him out of the idea. Same thing with the council. 

Violet: Bastards. 

Amethyst: One of them is your father! 

Violet glares a little at Amethyst. Amethyst sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose before standing up and walking over to her. Amethyst sits down next to her daughter and hugs her a little bit, pulling her closer to her person. She kisses Violet on the cheek and smiles down at her. 

Amethyst: How about you go spend some time with your brothers?

Violet: Detective, er, General Ignis said you had a mission for me and my team.

Amethyst: That was an excuse to get you in here. You do need to relax a little. Get your mind off of things. 

Violet: Not really. I mean, the war is coming here and-

Amethyst: Violet, calm down. We how much we are amassing, I bet four huntsmen and huntresses gone for a single night won’t be too bad. So, darts or want me to take you back home?

Violet looked up at Amethyst and gave a faint smile. 

Violet: Darts.

Amethyst smiled as the two stood up and walked back over to the dartboard. The two grab some arrows from Amethyst’s bag and start to play darts together.  
____________________________________________________  
Inside a black void, Isaac slowly walks in from behind a massive statue. He glances around slightly as some fire comes around from behind him. He is about to dodge but the fire goes around him. He glances around as well as he looks back and sees his parents standing there. Rather than be horrified or overjoyed, he just glares a little bit. 

Isaac: Hey. 

Rouge: Son. How have you been?

Isaac: Fine, Mom. How’s the afterlife?

Abraham: Do you need to be so disrespectful?  
Isaac: I don’t know, “Dad”, do you still need to be an arrogate son of a-

Rouge: Isaac, calm down. 

Isaac: Did you know about all this mom? About how Dad left us messages, predicting his death, YOUR death? How he had contingencies, how he manipulated our family?! How he had the GULL to even try and call himself my father! 

Abraham: So, Mason is your father now?

Isaac: I don’t have a father! He’s not my father. And you sure as hell aren’t my father either!

Abraham: I trained you and-

Isaac: And look at how that turned out!

Rouge: Isaac, please try to understand that we did everything. And you can’t do everything. I know you blame yourself for Fred, but you can’t just-

Isaac: Save it. For someone who gives a damn. 

Abraham and Rouge: Isaac!

Isaac slams his eyes shut and opens them again and sees himself sitting in a bedroom. He rubs the back of his neck and yawns a bit. He stands up and cracks his back. He looks in the corner of the room and sees his weapon, the scars still showing from the battles. He sighs, walks over to it and grabs it. He places it on his back and cracks his neck again. 

Isaac: Never again. They are out. 

Isaac walks off. 

Scene cuts to black.


	4. Pressing Charges

After the opening, Ing is seen out in a courtyard, using his left arm to fight a little. He still has it in a cast, but it is more refined than usual. After some swings of his baton, he uses his semblance from his right hand but winces a little as the energy flows through him. He sighs and groans as he walks back a little. Along his right arm, a green shimmer is shown as his aura slowly heals him up. Ing sits down and sighs again. 

A hand is placed on his shoulder and he looks up to see Llew. She gives him a slight smile and walks in front of him and draws her sword. Ing cocks an eyebrow as Llew takes a few steps back and gets into her stance. 

Llew: Would it be best to practice on a figure than along some ground?

Ing: I guess.

Llew smiles a bit as Ing gets up and draws his baton. Ing sighs, shifting forward a bit. Llew raises her blade a little but does not strike otherwise. Ing takes a deep breath and lunges forward, aiming for Llew’s head. Llew moved her blade and blocked the attack. Ing drew his baton back and went for her stomach next. Llew also blocked the attack and thrust forward just a bit. Ing blocked the attack with his baton. 

Ing spun around and spun his baton to attack but Llew blocked that as well. Ing groaned a bit and went in for another swing. Llew thrusts her blade forward and Ing barely dodges it as the sword is close to his cast. Ing growled a little and used his semblance with his cast covered arm and tried to hit Llew. Llew steps back and changes her dust and lights up her sword. She melts the ice and returns the blade to normal and slams her blade down onto Ing’s baton. 

Ing struggles a little bit and goes for a kick to Llew’s stomach. Llew raises a knee and blocks the kick. She jumps up slightly and kicks forward and hits Ing in the chin. Ing stumbles back a bit as Llew stands still. Ing coughs a bit and slowly stands up and cracks his neck. Ing looks back at her and is clearly annoyed. Llew looks a bit sympathetically at Ing and takes a step towards him. Ing yells and leaps forward, spinning through the air as he brings his baton on top of Llew’s sword. 

Ing growls again as he gets off of Llew. He looks back at her and she does the same to him. Ing sighs and steps back slightly as Llew continues to look at him with a confused expression. Ing sits back down on a bench and sighs to himself again as he pinches the bridge of his nose. Llew walks over to him and sits down on the ground before him. 

Ing: I’m useless without the other arm. 

Llew: You know that’s not true at all. 

Ing: Try me!

Llew: Ing. You can still fight. You can still use your semblance. You shouldn’t be so hard on-

Ing: Llew, now is really not the time. My arm won’t fully heal. Which means my aura isn’t doing much with it either. Which means my semblance can’t fully run and-

Llew: Ing, please try and calm down. And please understand, you are a valued member of this team. We care about you. That is why Violet has you in low stakes positions and-

Ing: Because you don’t think I can handle myself. Got it. 

Llew: You know that is not true! We keep you there so you won’t get hurt and-

Ing: Because I’m so incompetent and-

Llew: (Grabbing Ing’s shoulders) WE CAN’T LOSE YOU LIKE WE LOST, FREDERIC!!!

Ing stands there, shocked. Llew’s entire cool and collective nature, shattered before his eyes. Llew slowly lets go of his shoulders, straightens herself up, and sighs to herself. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath before stepping back.

Llew: That...is all I will say on the matter.

Llew turns around and begins to walk off. 

Ing: Then help me. (Llew glances back) Help me be better. 

Llew: Very well then. (She turns around and draws her sword) Begin.  
_________________________________________________________________  
Inside the desert of Vacuo, Ember and May are laying down on a sand dune, looking out across the horizon. Ember sighs and rolls onto his back and rubs his eyes. May glances over to him and softly pats his chest. 

Ember: Yeah, yeah. I know. 

Ember rolls back over and looks back out across the desert. 

Ember: Anything?

May: Just about in range. 

Ember: Contacts?

May: More than likely. Considering what they just did. 

Ember: Which is?

May: Hijacked a truck. Family of seven, presumably. Heading due southwest should directly come in front of us in about 45 seconds. Be a heck of a lot easier to get that truck back before it groups up with four more coming in directly from the north. 

Ember: Go to know. You’re scary when you're about business. 

May: Yep. In my sights. Take ‘em down, Sweetcheeks. 

Ember smirks and leaps over the dune and runs towards the convoy. 

May: Lieutenant, get going. 

From behind May, a squad of troopers stand up, all armed as well. 

Lieutenant: Yes ma’am!

May opens fire as the troopers all run in towards the convoy. As Ember runs up to it, a man leans out of the window and opens fire upon the huntsman. Ember jumps around, dodging the fire, and flips towards the truck. Ember extends his claw-like nails and cuts the front right tire of the truck, causing it to flip. Ember lands and takes out his knives and begins to open fire on another truck driving directly towards him. 

The bullets hit the drive which also caused that truck to crash. Two people leap from the truck and go to attack Ember. Ember blocks one attacker’s knife with his own and spins them around. He jumps up, pulls his legs up, and kicks the second attacker in the face. He grabs the ankle of the second attacker and throws them into the first before standing back up. Ember moves his torso to evade two sniper rounds which end up hitting more foes. 

Ember turns back and sees May reloading her rifle. He bows towards her as she fires another round and hits another oncoming attacker. Ember backflips and lands onto the attacker’s stomach and smirks a little before rolling off again. From one of the trucks, the driver gets out and starts to shoot a machine gun at the Vacuoan soldiers. He kills two of them before Ember’s knives are thrown directly next to his face. 

The driver stops and looks forward to seeing Ember running towards him, shoulder charging him, and pushing the driver back into the truck’s door. Ember punches the man in the chest, basically lodging him into the truck door. Ember grabs his knives and puts them away. He hears a horn and turns to his left to see the fourth and final truck driving straight towards him. 

In a brief second, the sole thing Ember could do was to activate his semblance and let the rage out. Ember’s teeth sharpened, muscles expanded and a howl was released just before the truck hit Ember. However, the truck came full stop a few moments later as Ember was pushing back on it with pure muscle alone. Ember yells as months of anger come out at once in pure power format. He lifts the truck and slams it back down onto the ground. Ember repeats the attack three more times before he throws the truck into the one right beside him. 

Ember growls again before he roars, shattering some glass from the truck as well. Ember snarls before he slowly turns his semblance completely off and cracks his neck a little. He walks over to the truck he just tipped over and rips the door off and pulls out the driver and throws them onto the ground. The driver slowly moves away as Ember growls at him. Before Ember can move, the Lieutenant walks up to the man and between Ember.

Lieutenant: We can handle this, sir. 

Ember: I want to know everything...now.

The Lieutenant nods and looks back down at the driver. He walks over and kneels down beside him. 

Lieutenant: Who do you work for?

The driver keeps quiet, glaring at the Lieutenant. May walks over from her sniper’s post and kneels down next to the man. She reaches into the driver’s jacket and grabs something and pulls it out. 

Driver: Geez lady if you wanted something I could have-

May hits the driver on the forehead with her fist before looking at the object she grabbed. 

May: All the evidence we need.

May tosses the necklace like object over to Ember. He grabs it and looks at it. It is Shadow Ombre’s emblem. He glares at it and back to the man. 

Ember: Everything they have comes back with us. Everyone in those trucks is in cuffs and comes back too! 

Lieutenant: Sir, that will be a while to get resources out here and-

Ember: Then make it happen! We take everything and everyone. No exceptions.

Ember turns back around and looks back at the emblem necklace. May walks over to him as the Lieutenant is giving out the orders. She places a hand on Ember’s shoulder and he glances back to her. 

Ember: How close do you think we are?

May: I’m not sure. But with how many we have taken out, his human forces are surely almost gone. 

Ember: And this fort?

May: Hug hypothetical. But I’m confident that with interrogations, we should be able to find it. 

Ember looks back out across the desert as May joins him.   
_______________________________________________________  
Inside the chambers of the Vacuo Temple, Tempus walks into frame and looks around the room with a single light-emitting at the center. He looks over to a large chamber way and walks inside it. He looks around the doorway and walks inside. His eyes widen as he looks over to the corner and sees Fred snoring a bit surrounded by books. Tempus walks over to him and whacks him with his staff, shocking him awake. 

Fred is jerked awake and looks around. He glances upward and sees Tempus looming over him. Fred groans and rubs the back of his neck. 

Tempus: What were you doing?

Fred: Sorry. I saw the library. I was looking for it for weeks! And well, I guess I couldn’t just help myself and read up on some stuff and-

Tempus: Rest will be of more benefit. When it comes to knowledge, one should exercise patience and understanding rather than jumping headfirst into the fray. 

Fred: Weren’t you the one to say to never hesitate? 

Tempus: Ah yes. Contradiction. An import lesson for-

Fred: Global politics among other things. Such as conviction or motivation. Or in some civil cases, he said she said sort of situation. I’m familiar with the idea. 

Tempus glared a little. 

Tempus: I could kick you out, right now.

Fred looked up at him and rolled his eyes. He stood up and dusted himself off a little as Tempus began to walk out of the temple. He glanced back at Fred and waved at him to follow. The door to the temple opened and Tempus was the first one out. He sighed and stretched a little before walking back to a small cave on the side of the entrance. From the cave, he pulled out three boxes and opened them. Inside was food and some water. 

Tempus grabbed two rocks and began to bash them together. 

Fred: You know I can just start the fire myself. 

Tempus: What good is power if you constantly exploit it? It would be best to use what small skills we know to better humble ourselves. 

Fred walked over once the fire started and Tempus began to make breakfast. Fred took a bowl and some fruit from a box. He looked over at Tempus and saw him mashing grains together before pouring everything into a bowl and cooking it over a fire. Tempus then walked over and sat down at the cliff and patted the spot next to him.

Tempus: Come! Sit down. 

Fred walks over and sits down beside him. Tempus took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. Fred looked over to Tempus and gave him a confused look. Tempus popped open one eye and looked over to Fred.

Tempus: Morning meditation. Gives you clarity and rest. A fantastic way to start the morning. 

Fred: Debatable. Besides wouldn’t that-

Tempus: Frederic. I understand that you fear that which one cannot understand. However, if one rests to watch the sunrise, then we can have harmony. Peace of mind. Calmness. 

Fred: And in the middle of a war, we can’t-

Tempus: Frederic, there are benefits to a nice morning. So, try and relax a little then we can go back to your readings. 

Fred rolls his eyes slightly and sits down beside Tempus. Tempus smiles and closes his eyes and takes in a deep breath. Fred does the same thing and begins to breathe as well. 

Tempus: What did the books teach you?

Fred: Mostly testimony and life stories. Some were a nice read. But there were some notes from Mathias. 

Tempus: Ah, the noble general. I take it they were about his time from the war.

Fred: Yeah. Didn’t know how much it really took on him for both the war and Haven Academy. I just hope what happens then doesn’t happen in this war too. 

Tempus nods a bit and the two continue to meditate a little.   
__________________________________________________  
Around Fort Frollo, some troopers are continuing to work on construction. A bullhead lands and from it steps Onyx and Lavender. Some of the troopers look back in shock as Onyx slowly walks up. Lavender quickly runs a bit further up and steps in front of Onyx. 

Lavender: My Lord, these are good men. They are only trying to-

Onyx: I am aware. Which is they along with yourself are relieved of this duty. 

Lavender: Sir?

Onyx ignores her and walks up to the fort. He looks around and sees almost all of the workers have stopped and are watching him. He raises a hand and points. Suddenly, numerous Grimm emerge from the sand and from Grimm pools. Beowolves begin to drag some of the beams towards the structure. Nevermores do the same and Beringels also appear and begin to put the tower together. 

All of the workers present quickly get away from the tower and from Onyx in general. Onyx glares as more and more Grimm emerge from the sands and begin to work along the tower. 

Onyx: From now on, I will have direct control over Fort Frollo. (He glances back to Lavender) Someone is sabotaging you, Ms. Kristal. And I intend to snuff them out and quickly. 

Onyx turns back to the troops and projects his voice.

Onyx: You will all return to the Citadel at once! Leave the project to the Grimm from now on! Understand?!

The troopers all standing firm, obeying without even a bit of questioning. Onyx turns back to the tower as a seer Grimm floats next to him. 

Onyx: I will have no more setbacks. (To the seer) You speak for me. Keep me posted. 

The seer floated towards the tower as Onyx walked back to the troopers.


	5. State of Execution

After the opening, Lavender is seen sitting down at her desk. She sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. She leans back and sighs again as reality hits her. Onyx was at Fort Frollo and she had a few more waves of explosions to take care of. She looks out the window again and stands up and looks out the window. She glances to the ground and turns around and walks back to the desk. She picks up the detonator and smirks a little bit. 

Lavender: Ah well. This will be much more fun. 

Lavender presses down on the button to set off the bombs. Inside Fort Frollo, numerous Grimm are blown up and destroyed. The seer quickly lights up and inside Onyx’s meeting chamber, he sees the explosion. He glares a bit and slams his hands down onto the crystal table, denting it slightly. Onyx groans a bit as the doors open and Volt walks inside. 

Onyx: It appears that the tower is still facing more issues. 

Lavenza: Indeed. Although I may have a solution. 

Onyx: That being? 

Lavenza: Simple. But, first, a request?

Onyx: Bold of you to request something of me, Dr. Volt. 

Lavenza: Nothing too much. Just round up the remaining troops who worked out the fort. 

Onyx: Very well then. I will have Ms. Quarzo round everyone up. 

Lavenza bows and walks out of the room. Before Lavenza leaves, he stops himself and slowly turns back to Onyx. 

Lavenza: Oh, and, master? (Onyx cocks an eyebrow) Would our newest member be able to get a portal to my old laboratory. My solution is located there. 

Onyx: Consult with him. This is your request, Doctor, see it through. 

Lavenza bows and walks out of the room. Onyx goes to look out of the window and glares a bit. Inside a large chamber, the remnants of the Ombre Army gather as does Roz, Lavender, and Stier. Onyx steps into the room, overlooking the soldiers. A massive portal opens besides Onyx and Lavenza steps through. He nods at Onyx who looks back to the soldiers. 

Onyx: Ladies and Gentlemen! For the past three months, someone has been sabotaging our fortress in Vacuo. This saboteur has damaged our property, killed our men, your brothers and sisters in arms! And in doing so, has hindered our progress to take that kingdom and complete our goals! And so, they will be punished on this day!

From the portal, a Grimm-like skull is shown. All the color in Lavender is gone as she is encompassed by pure fear. Roz is also horrified as both Onyx and Lavenza smirks as the Grimm steps out...the Harrapari reborn. 

The beast looks to be how it was before now with new armor, pure orange eyes and is clearly bigger. The portal closes as the Harrapari roars again and begins to crawl along the walls of the chamber. Onyx glares out across the crowd as the entire army has fear on their face. A few more portals open around the room as mutated Grimm from Project: Judicator emerges and begins to slowly box the troops in. Stier snarls and looks up to Onyx. 

Stier: What is this?! YOU ARE NOT KILLING MY MEN!!!

Onyx: Oh, Colonel, I dare not kill them at all. I only care about killing the traitors! 

Onyx points and the Grimm begin to sniff around as the Harrpari continues to look over the room. Onyx watches the Grimm keenly as they run up to some troops and sniffs them and continues onward. Stier still has a distasteful look on his face as his troops are essentially interrogated. 

Roz looks up at Onyx as well. She has fear on her face as he keeps a neutral look on his face. She looks back to the troops and looks concerned as they continue to have fear. Lavender also has fear plastered on her face as the Grimm continues to look around and fuel the fear more and more. As Onyx continues to look out, he sees about three soldiers slowly moving away from the rest to the exit. 

Onyx points out to them and the Grimm quickly move in and block the exit. The Grimm growl and the Harrapari drops down as well. The Grimm push the troopers back and the others separate to give them space. Roz has some shock as does Stier. Onyx looks down, glaring as the troopers are brought into the center of the room. 

Onyx: So then, why do you wish to leave us?

Trooper 1: We don’t have to put up with this bull!

Trooper 2: MacArthur! 

MacArthur: Save it Grant! The entire army is dead! And you all have stopped giving a damn! (Points to Roz and Stier) Especially you! 

Stier glares a little as Roz looks away for a split second. 

MacArthur: You claim so much about caring for us! But the army died! We are being blown up while you miserable little bastards get to live comfortably and use us! I mean, so what we conquer Vacuo?! What do we get out of it?! We’ve been doing this for months now?! AND WHAT DO WE GET OUT OF IT??!!

Some of the troopers are audibly agreeing now. Some re-yelling MacArthur’s questions. Onyx yells and looks back down at the three. 

Onyx: If you agree to following, then I shall reward you. Our state will be an elegant one. One free of strife and pain. And you will be rewarded as citizens of this state. You will never know pain again! 

MacArthur: To hell with that! I could have peace back in Mistral if I wanted to! Go and fu-

Onyx waves his hand down and the Harrapari slams its jaws down on MacArthur and consumes him. The other grimm around Grant and the final trooper move in and attack. The three troopers are killed before the rest, putting fear on the survivor’s faces. Stier yells as he looks up and fires at the balcony with Onyx and Lavenza. After a few shots, Stier stops and falls to his knees. 

Roz looks away as does Lavender. The Harrapari finishes consuming MacArthur. The other Grimm move away and show the remains of the troopers. 

Onyx: Make no mistake. I want to take you all and make you citizens of the state. But to do that, you must follow my orders! You must make sacrifices like the rest of us! But if you do not. If you choose to be a coward and think yourselves as superior to our grace, to the rest of us, then you will be snuffed out. Let these three be examples. And let the rest of you never escape from your path!

Onyx walks off and Lavenza joins him. Stier, Roz and Lavender look back to the troopers in some fear. The other troopers also look around at each other with much fear. Back to Onyx and Lavenza, the two of them are walking down the hallway.

Onyx: I am happy that your experiments truly advanced this far. 

Lavenza: I do aim to please. 

Onyx: I can see. 

Lavenza: Master. What would the logic be behind having those soldiers follow us into the state? Wouldn’t they just taint our society and-

Onyx: Doctor, while I do enjoy seeing your logical side, one must remember, a state cannot be a few people. A state must be more than that. They will see paradise soon enough. 

Lavenza: And if they cannot?

Onyx: Execution. Without remorse. 

A seer appears before the two. It chatters a bit as Onyx smiles slightly. 

Onyx: Still working on catch up, but should be there by the end of the day. And the fusion cannons?

Lavenza: The Doctor’s math checks out. I am working on construction now. Our first cannon should be done shortly. 

Onyx: Excellent. Keep up the work. 

Onyx walks off as Lavenza bows slightly and heads back to his lab.  
__________________________________________________________  
Inside the Eclairage family home, Violet is seen in front of a table with a large board in front of it. She has several cards in her hands as she looks out across the table. Next to her on either side are her brothers, Blue and Nero Eclairage with her mother right across from her. Nero looks to be a bit excited as Blue seems annoyed. 

Blue: Just go already. 

Violet: I’m thinking. 

Blue: I thought you were a strategist. Shouldn’t this only be a few seconds then. It’s been two minutes since your turn started. 

Violet: Hey, Blue. Shut up. I got work to do.

Blue: Oh yeah. Like what?

Violet: For example. 

Violet lays down a card and moves some pieces in the area marked “VALE” on the map. She places a few more in front of “VYTAL” where Blue’s pieces are stationed. She places down a Natural Defense card and reinforcement cards. She smirks as she looks over to her brother. 

Violet: Kicking your butt and getting a foothold in Vale. So, get your boys out of Vytal.  
Blue looks on in shock and then grows an annoyed scowl. 

Nero: Boom! 

Nero laughs a little, annoying Blue some more. 

Blue: Shut up.

Nero: You shut up!

Amethyst: Both of you better shut up before I hit you!

Blue: You would!

Blue and Amethyst glare at each other for a few seconds. Violet and Nero lean in on either side of the two and watch with intent. Amethyst slowly brings her hand over and slightly slaps Blue’s arm. 

Blue: That’s child abuse. I’m telling, Dad.

Amethyst: Try it, buster!

Blue rolled his eyes and went back to looking at his cards. Amethyst chuckled a bit, stood up and kissed the side of Blue’s head. 

Amethyst: I’ll get us some food. Carrot sticks?

Nero: Carrots are gross!

Amethyst: You’re gross!

Nero: You and Dad are gross! 

Amethyst laughed some more as Violet watched her walk back into the kitchen. She smiled a little bit and turned to look back at her brothers. She sighed in contempt and looked down at her scroll. On it was a group chat among her teammates. The messages all read as the team was to come down to the Eclairage home just to get a load off soon. Violet smiled again as she heard Nero gasp a little.

Nero: Mom! Blue is taking out Mistral! He’s playing dirty!

Blue: No I’m not! It’s called using my resources!   
__________________________________________________________  
Along a cliff front, Fred is seen climbing up a mountain slowly. Along his arms and legs is rope, holding onto cinder blocks, weighing him down. Fred groans as he reaches up and pulls himself upward and moves up along the mountain side. As he reaches up for another ledge, the weights keep him back a bit but he is able to grab on. However, after a few seconds, the weight breaks the rock and pulls Fred down. 

He struggles to slowly get a firm grasp onto the mountain side. However, as he tries, the weights pull him down more and Fred falls off of the mountain side and falls. He lands with a thug onto the ground, his aura shimmering a bit as he does. Once he is on the ground, Fred pushes all of the weights off of him and slams his hand down onto the ground in anger. 

Behind him, Tempus looks a bit unpleased by the situation at hand. He sighs and slowly walks over to Fred who is now standing up. Around Fred’s body are rope burns. Fred groans and turns around to see Tempus approaching him. 

Fred: Now what?

Tempus: Do not get testy with me, young one. 

Fred: Then stop wasting my time. 

Tempus: I am not wasting your time at all. You wanted training and I gave you some results. 

Fred: Yeah, climbing up a mountain?! That will help me fight Onyx.

Tempus: It will increase strength. You must enhance both states. One Guardian, one more human. 

Fred: You are aware humans can harm him. I mean, have you ever seen the man?!

Tempus: Once. But that does not matter. You are too impatient and too angry for your own good. It will make training flow slowly and soon come to a standstill. You need to focus on advancement and understanding. 

Fred: We don’t have that luxury. And you know damn well why that is!

Tempus: You are letting the pressure get to you. Soon enough-

Fred: Forget this! If you won’t help me, then I have no reason to be here. 

Tempus: Ah, yes. The arrogance! 

Fred: Arrogance?! I’m trying to save the world! And I can’t do that without my team! I can’t do that unless you start to focus on progressing my Guardian abilities and-

Tempus: And that is why you are too hasty! You do not hesitate to learn which is vital. Yet when given a chance to run slowly, you deny it. You demand to see the results quickly. You act without carefully covering all your bases. You’ve been that way ever since Beacon fell! 

Fred: You don’t know that! 

Tempus: Were you not the one who ushered in a chase of those responsible two weeks after the entire battle? 

Fred: I...how do you know that?

Tempus: A certain eagle can be very talkative when it comes to you. 

Fred: What about it?! If you are so smart, then I guess you already have a stable solution?!

Tempus: That I do. 

Tempus waves for Fred to follow him as he re-enters the temple. Fred groans a bit and begins to follow him inside. The two walk down through some chambers. They enter the library and slowly walk through it. Fred looks around, confused as they progress further down into the library. Once they reach the end, Tempus feels some of the back wall. Once he stops, he smiles. 

Tempus: If you could please place your palm here and light some fires?

Fred walked over and placed his palm where Tempus directed him. He could feel a small bump located there. Fred sighed and ignited some flames from the Scorch Blades. Fred was a bit surprised as the wall began to glow red as more and more fire emerges along the wall. Fred looks back at Tempus who nods. Fred begins to use his semblance and slowly moves the flames around the wall. 

As more and more fire run along the wall and forms the Scorch family emblem. Fred is surprised as the door slowly moves open and allows them access. 

Fred: How...how is that-

Tempus: That emblem has been used by several families under the Guardian rule. It’s not that shocking. 

Fred: As a history nut, I don’t believe this. 

Tempus: Then look into your own history. 

Tempus smiles and walks inside and Fred joins him. Inside is a table and some writings along both the walls and table. 

Fred: What is this place?

Tempus: A mind-test?

Fred: Pardon?

Tempus: The Guardians have been communing with one another for centuries. These tests were meant to help struggling Guardians find and do battle with aspects of themselves. To improve their mental states. This way they can see their faults and grow from them. 

Primus: (mentally) Yes! The mind-test would certainly work. 

Leon: (mentally) If you cannot understand your faults, you must be shown them!

Solus: (mentally) Please. It is the best way for you to grow!

Fred: The others seem to agree. 

Tempus: But do you?

Fred nods. 

Tempus: Then lie down. Primus and I will handle the rest.

Fred complies and lies down along the table. Tempus gathers some herbs and materials and places them within a bowl. Tempus then begins to chant as Fred’s eyes slowly become more and more red. He eventually begins to scream a little as Tempus breaks some herbs over him, letting powder fall down onto Fred’s nose and face. 

From Fred’s view, his eyes become more and more white as Primus takes over as does the incantation. Fred doesn’t cover his eyes as he yells some more until his entire world is pure white. 

Primus: Now you will see why your crimes have punished you! Welcome, Frederic, to your rehabilitation! 

Fred yells some more as the white void is now complete and all audio is cut out. 

Scene cuts to black.


	6. Cunning Mind

After the opening, Ing and Llew are seen once again inside the courtyard of Shade Academy. Ing is seen with a new cast, one much more loose and unofficial compared to last time. He is also seen using his semblance, creating some large ice sculpture before him with Llew watching. Ing takes a deep breath and continues onward with his work. The statue resembles that of the former Queen of Vacuo who was also Shade’s first headmaster. Ing begins to pick up the pace a little as more and more of his aura is drained. 

Llew looks over and her eyes widen a bit as she sees Ing’s aura shimmer a bit. She walks over to him and places a hand onto his shoulder. Ing glances back and looks at his teammate. 

Llew: Slow down. You are pushing yourself too much and-

Ing: I got this! 

Llew: I know you do...but just rest for a split second. 

Ing sighs and stops making the sculpture. He slowly turns around to face Llew and he sees a smile on her face. 

Llew: I just want to make sure you are safe and healthy. Might I suggest some food?

Ing: We had breakfast 4 hours ago. I can manage. 

Llew: Just double checking. Your abilities seem to be growing. You should be proud of that fact. 

Ing: Well, I should-we should be third years by this point. I would hope they would grow in each of us. 

Llew: I am being truthful, Ing. But still, a little more help would always be required. 

Ing: I know. Ready to go back to physical combat?

Llew: I believe it best that you continue your semblance training. Growing that skill will be of benefit, especially given your condition. 

Ing nodded and went back to the sculpture. As he was working on it, he took some deep breaths as his power continued to flow from his aura. As she watched, Llew slowly moved around out of view of Ing and silently teleported herself away. Ing took a few more breaths and stopped suddenly and panted a bit. 

Ing stretched a little and looked back to his arm. He sighs to himself and turns around expecting to see Llew. His eyes widen a bit as he looks around, trying to find his friend. After some time, Llew teleports back in and goes down with a slash, trying to attack Ing. Ing uses his semblance to create an ice wall and blocks the attack. 

Llew shatters the ice wall and goes to attack Ing again. Ing takes out his baton and blocks each strike Llew throws at him while taking a few steps back. Ing flips back and slams his hand down onto the ground and creates a pillar of ice to stand on. As Llew jumps up to continue her assault, Ing flips again and lands on the ground to evade her. 

Ing: I thought you said to take things slow?!

Llew: Ing...you know me. This is me taking it slow. 

Ing gives an annoyed look before he smirks and runs up to attack Llew. Ing jumps up and throws a kick to Llew who blocks it with her wrist. Ing uses his semblance along his right arm but Llew teleports away to avoid the attack. She appears along the ground and readies herself. Ing converts his baton into his assault rifle and opens fire at Llew, using his left hand to shoot while his right holds it down so he can aim. 

Llew’s eyes widen and she runs off. 

Ing: You can’t hide forever!

Ing leaps off of the pillar and chases after her. Along a walkway, Eadwulf is seen looking down at the two with his arms crossed. He chuckles slightly and smiles. Violet then walks on screen and stands opposite him.

Eadwulf: Find anything yet?

Violet: Nothing of significance. How are they doing?

Eadwulf: Seems like they are having fun. 

The two look up when they hear an engine and see a BIC cruiser fly overhead.

Eadwulf: Should we?

Violet: No. (Points to the courtyard) They are our priority.   
___________________________________________________________  
The cruiser lands in a massive field next to Shade Academy. From it steps Ember, May and their troops along with the bandits. Standing at the base is Mason and Evie. Both Ember and May salute and Mason smiles slightly at them. Before he can speak, Evie steps forward and hugs them both. 

Evie: Are you ok? Are there any scratches?

May: I’m fine. 

Ember: Same here. We got a few wounded. Three casualties overall. 

Evie: Well...that’s good I guess. 

Mason: And the bandits?

Evie glares a little bit at Mason as Ember steps around her. 

Ember: All had emblems of Ombre. I’m confident there is something out there! I know it!

Mason: Go to know. We’ll send out scouting parties tomorrow. 

Ember: And let me guess, you want me leading them?

Mason: Correct. You and Colonel Eclairage. I’m sure you won’t mind.

Ember: Uh, actually, Dad I need to-

Mason places a hand on Ember’s shoulder and smiles and walks off. Evie glares a little and looks back to Ember and May. They are visibly tired and trudge off to the side to get ready for the following day. Evie just glares and follows Mason inside Shade Academy. 

Evie: Stop right there, Mister!

Mason turns around and cocks an eyebrow. 

Mason: What is it?

Evie: Talk! NOW!

Mason: Excuse me?  
____________________________________  
Inside Mason’s office, Evie slams the doors shut and lock them. Mason still has a confused look on his face as Evie spins around to face him. Mason looks at her as Evie storms up to him. 

Evie: What’s wrong with you?

Mason: I’m...sorry?

Evie: You should be!

Mason: Listen, Eves, I don’t see what on earth is wrong? Did I do something wrong?

Evie: YES! Very wrong Mason! Working our kids to the bone! Giving them military ranks at the age of 18 and 19! That’s not right Mason! And having run mission after mission after mission! Isaac is off doing who knows what because of this! Are you trying to chase our baby away?!

Mason: Hey, he wanted this! He wanted a fighting force and I gave it to him!

Evie: So now you are working him to the bone for trying to stop a war?!

Mason: War takes us to our bones!

Evie: They’re kids! Specifically, our kids!

Mason: You weren’t there! Isaac said I wasn’t his dad, so we got only one boy to worry about now!

Evie: And I bet that made you happy, didn’t it?! Only having to worry about one of three and now you are pushing him out too! Great work, Mason!

Mason: I’m trying to save the world here, Evie! And I don’t see anyone else trying to reunite the world and fight together! 

Evie: Well, the kids were doing a much better job than you right now!  
Mason: (Sarcastically) Oh yeah, they did great! (Yelling) NO WONDER WHY MY SON DIED!!!

Evie: AT LEAST HE DIDN’T PUSH EVERYONE OUT WHEN HE WAS WORKING!!! 

Mason: THIS IS WHY WE BROKE UP SO OFTEN!

Evie: OH RIGHT! BECAUSE YOU DON’T LIKE BEING TOLD ‘NO’. You don’t like being told you are wrong, or that something bad is happening! Hell, why are we still even married?!

Mason: Oh, oh! Now you want to make this about us! I thought this was about the boys?!

Evie: Don’t change the subject on me, Mason! 

Mason: Then don’t be such a-

Evie: You say that, I am taking Ember and the kids and I will never see you again! 

Mason: Don’t you DARE take my kid away from me!

Evie: WHY NOT?!

Mason: (Slams hand down on the desk) BECAUSE I CAN’T LOSE ANOTHER ONE DAMNIT!!!

The room goes silently, each of them taking some deep breaths. Mason leans up against the desk and pinches the bridge of his nose and swears to himself. Evie walks over to him and slowly pushes his arm out of the way and lifts his chin upward so he can look her in the eye. 

Evie: Then stop pushing them away. I know you are scared. I am too. But we can’t fix the world if we destroy our own. So don’t push them away. He loves you. I love you. Let them take a break, relax. They haven’t had enough time for a breather. It’s been constant work. And when the time is right, then we let them lose. 

Mason: (Sighs) Yeah...ok. 

Evie walks up to him and hugs Mason. Mason hugs her back and he rests his head on her shoulder. They break the hug and Evie whips a small tear away from Mason’s eye. She offers him a smile and he returns it. Mason pecks her on the forehead as the two look at one another in the face, smiles present.  
_______________________________________________________  
A white void fills the screen and slowly comes to as Fred appears on screen. His eyes slowly open as he looks out and the void becomes a familiar setting. He gasps and steps forward a bit in shock. He is standing inside Beacon Academy, right before the mighty statue. He looks around and sees no one present at the location other than himself. 

Fred: What the…

May: Nostalgic, I know.

Fred quickly spun around and saw May standing right behind him. She gives him a smile and walks up past him, arms at her back. Fred began to take some deep breaths and was almost about to chase after her but May turned around and shook her head. 

May: I’m not really her. This form is just to make sure you don’t go insane due to the cosmic forces that inhabit your mind and body. 

Fred: You mean the Guardian Spirit?

May: Precisely. Welcome to your first test. A Test of Vision. 

Fred: Alright. Objective?

May: Simple. (She takes out a key) You need to take this key from us. (A door appears beside her) This door will lead to your next test. You have twelve hours. Fail that and you fail the whole test. 

Fred: Simple enough. 

May: Oh good. 

Fred’s eyes widen as another May walks between him and the first one. A third one walks past him and the first hands off the key to her. More Mays appear and the key is passed around, getting Fred to turn around and see about 100 more Mays everywhere across campus. He turns back and gets the same situation. One chuckles and looks at him.

May: Shouldn’t have taken your eyes off of it.   
Several of the Mays turn invisible while others begin to flip away and run off. Fred growls and runs forward and tackles one May but it disappears completely. He gets up and looks around. 

May: Oh! And only one of us is real!

Fred looks around and sees May again on some stairs. He runs over and leaps down, but once again, the May disappears. He does the same with another May sitting atop the statue. 

May chuckles and runs off with the key down into an academic building. Fred growls again and runs forward. He leaps through a window and sees three Mays, each with a key in hand. He looks at each in shock as they all give him some cocky smiles. He snarls and leaps forward and tackles the middle one. It quickly disappears as does the one on the left. 

May: What happened to you? You use to analyze everything. Think about successful plans. Now you leap before you look without a second thought. 

Fred groans as he sees May running out of the hall. He gets to his feet and gives chase after her. As Fred opens the door and runs through, a trip wire gets him and he falls to the ground. May steps forward again and smirks down at him. 

May: And you always run before you look too. That’s why we lost! That’s why those slaves hated you! You only cared about yourself!

Fred: I needed to get out! It was the only way!

May: Come on, Frederic. (Fred looks over to see two more Mays) You can’t have tunnel vision at a time like this! Look at a wider picture. Try looking at things in their entirety. 

Fred got up and sighed to himself. His eyes then widened as the realization took place. He looked around and saw some of the Mays smirk and run off again. He cracks his neck and looks around. He then leaves the building and looks up towards Beacon Tower.

Fred: Look at things in their entirety, huh?

Fred began to walk through the campus looking around at the different Mays all either running from him or turning invisible. He turns and looks at a few as they hide in the shadows. Rather than ignoring them, he waves at them and offers them some smiles. Eventually, some start to smile back and soon, Fred stops himself as he sees a May transform into a different student. 

As Fred walks past more Mays and greets them, they slowly transform into the student body and faculty of Beacon Academy. He sees members of teams in upperclassmen, some of his own classmates from Professor Peach’s biology course. Even Professor Goodwitch. Fred walks inside Beacon Tower and sees some Atlas soldiers standing guard. Before the doors close, he sees two more Mays turn into General Ironwood and Qrow Branwen and the doors close. 

Fred sighs. The elevator arrives at the top floor and Fred steps out and sees Ozpin’s office. The chair behind the desk turns around and sitting there is Ozpin himself holding the key. 

Fred: Figured I’d be seeing you. The man who’s seen it all. The entire picture.

Ozpin: Almost, but not quite. Still, I appreciate the sentiment. 

Ozpin holds up the key for Fred to take it. Fred raises his hand a bit and Ozpin tosses the key to him. Fred walks over to the window and Ozpin stands up and joins him. 

Fred: I guess...I forgot that the little actions one person can make really does affect the world around him.

Ozpin: Indeed it does. However, now is not the time for reflections. 

A pink light ripped through the air and slowly opened into a door like shape. Both Fred and Ozpin turned around to face it. Fred looked up at him and Ozpin nodded and gestured to the door. Fred nodded and walked over to the door. 

Ozpin: Best of luck. The trails from here will be far more difficult. And far more tedious than one might wish to believe. 

Fred: I understand. 

Ozpin: Do you though?

Fred cocks an eyebrow slightly. 

Ozpin: Look what you did here. You were quick to assume. Do not make the same mistake twice now. 

Fred nodded and placed the key into the pink light. He takes a deep breath and walks into the portal, disappearing into the pink light. The portal closes and the scene cuts to black.


	7. Trails of Fred

After the opening, Fred walks into a brand new setting, the Emerald Forest. Fred looks around in some awe before he shakes his head and regains some focus. He takes a deep breath and he hears a motor coming in from behind him. His eyes widen a bit as it is a familiar sound.

Fred: Crimson Dynamo?

Fred turns and sees someone riding his motorcycle, making a B-line straight towards him. Fred cartwheels backward and avoids the hit as whoever drives it, comes in for a slide. Fred looks back and sees Leia remove a yellow colored helmet from her head and give you a smirk. He walks over to her as Leia pats the bike softly. 

Leia: Surprised? 

Fred: Hardly. You always did say you liked the bike.

Leia: True. You ready?

Fred: I believe so. What’s the test?

Leia: You won’t always know.

Leia revs the engine and takes off. 

Fred: Hey, wait!

Leia doesn't stop and keeps driving. Fred growls and leaps up into the trees. He climbs up a bit and looks around and sees the temple from the Initiation. He gasps slightly, realizing the intended destination and began to leap from tree to tree. As he is moving, some of the trees begin to uproot themselves and the ground rises and falls. Fred stops running when the ground shoots up and creates a massive wall of rock. 

Fred: Oh come on!

Fred hears Leia giggle and looks up to see her along the wall. 

Leia: There’s always an easier way! And you won’t always see the trials ahead of you. Or their solutions!

Leia revved the engine again and took off. Fred growled a little before jumping onto the wall. He slowly began to climb up the wall until he heard a screech. He glanced back and saw Nevermore flying around the cliff. It screeched again and charged towards Fred. He gasped and leaped from rock to rock, trying to avoid the Grimm. The beast slammed into the wall and then did so again and again, chasing Fred down. 

He pants slightly as he looks back to the Nevermore and sees it break out from the rock. He places his forehead onto the cliff and takes some deep breaths. 

Fred: Think. Easier way. Hidden solution. There is…

Fred gasped as he looked over and saw some roots along the cliff. As the Nevermore came down again, Fred leaped over and grabbed the roots. The grimm screeched again and went into an attack once again. Fred pulled the roots out from the cliff and watched as the Nevermore swooped down towards him. Fred took a deep breath and leapt off of the cliff, pulling the roots with him so the Grimm would bite down on him. 

The plan worked and the Nevermore bit down along the roots and pulled them out. Fred swung around and landed on the monster’s back and pulled the roots to act like a leash. Fred leaned left and began to navigate the Grimm towards the temple. He looked down at the ground and saw Leia riding the motorcycle. She looked up and saw Fred on the Grimm’s back and smirked a little. As Fred passed over the temple, he jumped down and landed onto the ground, ran over and grabbed the key just as Leia pulled up. 

Leia: (Laughs) Nice going there. You win. 

Fred nods and walks to where the yellow crack in reality. He placed the key inside and walked on through.   
_________________________________________  
Fred walks through another door. He gasps slightly and looks around. He is standing inside Signal Academy’s training hall. 

Ember: Well this is a first.

Fred turns around and sees Ember standing next to a giant sand timer. 

Ember: Normally I kept you waiting. 

Fred: Yeah. Good old days.   
Ember: Well, let’s see if you can recapture those moments. 

Ember flips the timer and walks into a massive circle. 

Ember: This is a trail of strength. All you need to do is get me out of this circle before the sand runs out. 

Fred raises his fist as Ember cracks his neck. 

Ember: Keep in mind, I’m not the Ember you know. 

Fred runs up and does a two footed kick to Ember’s chest. However, Ember raises a hand and stops the attack. He pushes Fred back and makes him slide along the ground. Fred runs back in and throws some kicks towards Ember’s head. Ember quickly dodges each kick by either moving his head or ducking under them. Fred goes in for a right hook but Ember dodges that as well. He punches Fred in the face and launches him backwards along the ground. 

Fred gets up and glares at his brother. Fred runs up and flips forward and goes in for a diving kick. Ember blocks the hit with his forearms and throws Fred back. Fred gets along the ground and uses his semblance to throw fireballs at Ember. Fred smirks a little but is shocked as Ember still stands there, unfazed by the attack. Fred glares and runs forward again and goes in for another drop kick. Ember takes the hit in the chest full force, and once again, does not move. 

Fred gets back up and looks at Ember. He lunges forward, lands and quickly changes direction to try and get around Ember. However, Ember quickly turns and back hands Fred out of the circle. 

Ember: Tick-tock, Boss. 

Fred runs up and throws a punch at Ember. Ember blocks it with his forearms. Fred throws some more punches and Ember blocks each one with the force of Onyx. Fred throws another punch and grips his hand afterwards. He shakes it a little and Ember laughs.

Fred: This is impossible. Without my Guardian Abilities, I could barely move you. 

Ember: Well, you are the team leader. So, if that’s your order, I’m obliged to follow.

Ember throws a punch and launches Fred back across the circle. Fred slowly stands up and looks back at Ember. 

Fred: (Thinking) Think. The solution is not always obvious. Look at the bigger picture. (Gasps; projects) Ember!

Ember smirks and raises his arms to fight.

Fred: Execute Plan 6!

Ember: Isn’t that the retreat plan?

Fred: Yeah. Get out of this circle.

Ember: (Shrugs and smiles) Sure thing, Boss.

Ember walks out of the circle, passing out just before the sand is finished within the timer. Fred smiles slightly as Ember takes the key from mid air and walks back to Fred.

Fred: I thought this was a test of strength.

Ember: It was. There is a reason why Ozpin chose you. There is a reason why I chose you.

Fred looks at Ember and sees his eyes glowing orange, the actual Guardian Spirit. 

Ember: Try not to forget it. Your final trial awaits. Don’t mess up now.

Fred nods and turns around to see the orange crack in reality. Like before, he unlocks the gateway and teleports himself on through.   
___________________________________________  
Fred emerges in a new state. He looks around and sees a bright blue sky. Buildings are a bit taller than he remembers and Fred begins to walk down the street. The cityscape is clearly downtown Vale, but now it seems...better. Clean skies, clean streets, everyone out and about like before. Fred smiles as the world seems perfect, but a few people give him eyes of fear. He looks a bit confused, but does not question it at all. 

As Fred rounds a corner, he passes by a cafe and hears an old man stand up and yells at a waiter. 

Old Man: What is this?! Poor food, lousy service, and you add up the check wrong. 

Waiter: Sir, you’re disturbing the other customers. 

Old Man: (Laughs) What? 5 and 5 make 15?!

As Fred watches, a police van pulls from around the corner and Fred runs into cover behind an alleyway. The van stopped in front of the cafe and two officers stepped out and walked up to the old man. 

Officer: You’re coming with us!

Old Man: Get your hands off me-(Sees the officers) I’m...I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it! (They drag the old man back to the van) It...It was good and-and the food, it was nice, I swear! 

The old man was thrown inside the van as the officers locked them inside and drove off. Fred looked at them confused and walked down the alleyway slightly. He leans against the wall and sighs. 

Fred: (To himself) Ok. Let’s think here. What could be happening? Is this a world ruled by Onyx? No. I expected more grimm. But maybe...oh my-

Fred stepped out from the alleyway and saw a massive statue of him, holding Onyx by the throat. The pose of the statue made it out that Fred was angry, well, angrier than usual. He takes a step back in shock as he looks around and sees camera along every building, police driving along the streets constantly. 

Fred: Ok then...this is….not ruled by Onyx. 

Male Voice: Got that right. 

Fred turned around and saw two male figures. They walked out of the shadows to reveal Ember and Eadwulf. With them, several armed police officers, aiming their guns at Fred. Fred’s eyes widened a bit as he looked them over, each wearing different outfits, more militaristic than before. 

Lord Eadwulf: Impersonating a state official is punishable for execution! 

Fred: Execution? What...what are you saying?!

Lord Ember: Take him!

The officers ran over to Fred and lunged at him. One landed on his right arm and Fred pushed him off. As another came in, Fred kicked them to the side, but more and more troopers came in and tackled Fred. Ember and Eadwulf slowly walked up to him as more and more troopers brought him to the ground. 

Lord Ember: Resisting arrest too. Boy, you are asking to be killed. 

Fred looked up and Ember threw a punch down at his face, making him blackout. As Fred eyes’ re-open, he is seen being dragged through a grand hall by two troopers being led by Ember and Eadwulf. Fred groans and raises his head and looks around the setting. It appears he is inside some palace. Two double doors open before them all and walk inside. 

Lord Ember: Sir! We have an imposter! Should we move to execution? 

Male Voice: (Sighs) Ember. You don’t need to ask every time! 

Fred’s eyes widened as he looked up. Standing there is a man in a dark jacket, similar to his, along with some white mixed in with the black and some yellow. The figure turns his head and it is revealed to be Fred himself, standing before them all with advisors. Fred glances around to see May and Leia standing there as well in similar style clothing. 

This dark Fred turned his head over to Ember and Eadwulf and his own eyes widened as he saw Fred. He walked over to him and leaned down to meet Fred eye to eye. Lord Fred reached forward and grabbed Fred’s cheek and pinched it a bit, making Fred wince a little. Lord Fred stands back up and looks at him. He glances around slightly, letting the situation plan in. 

Lord Fred: Leave us! All of you!

Lord Leia: My Lord? Are you-

Lord Fred: Leia...do as I say.

Lord Leia: As you wish. 

May walks over to Fred and places a hand on his shoulder. Fred nods and May does the same. They walk back together and leave the room. Leia waved the advisors and May away. Ember and Eadwulf bowed as they waved their troopers back. Once the room was cleared, Lord Fred closed the doors behind them both. He turned back to face his counterpart. 

Lord Fred: It’s about time. I was wondering when you would arrive. 

Fred: Who are you?

Lord Fred: I thought that would be obvious. I’m you. 

Fred: Doubtful. 

Lord Fred: Don’t test me. It’s bad enough now that you showed yourself to my court. This is a test, not an execution. They will be expecting that. No matter. 

Fred: What...what have you done? What happened to this world?!

Lord Fred: What happened? I made paradise. No suffering, no wars, no nothing. 

Fred: You...you killed-

Lord Fred: Onyx. Yes. Gave a lobotomy. Melt his brain. Did the same with everyone else who wished to put the world into jeopardy. 

Fred glared at his dark counterpart. Lord Fred turned around and walked over to the real world counterpart and melted his cuffs off. Fred looked up at him confused as he stood up. 

Fred: What are you doing?

Lord Fred: Don’t see why we can’t be civil about this. 

Fred walked over to him and they both sat down at the two massive thrones inside the chamber. However, Fred stops and refuses to move over to one of the seats as Lord Fred sits down at his throne. 

Lord Fred: Well? Ask away. 

Fred: I...where’s the litter? The crime rate? The-

Lord Fred: If you want people to respect the big laws, you’ve got to enforce the small laws. It’s a utopia. 

Fred: A utopia? There’s police everywhere! This isn’t a place of perfection. 

Lord Fred: Really? So, you want Onyx to win?

Fred: This is what will happen if Onyx wins! I just can’t believe some version of myself decided to become just like him! A power hungry dictator with no regard for human life. This isn’t a better world for that!!

Lord Fred stood up and glared down at him. 

Lord Fred: Why not? We eliminated our enemies. Brought them to the ground and used them as stepping stones to create peace. 

Fred: I wonder what Violet thinks of this.

Lord Fred goes silent. He takes a deep breath, trying to regain his composure. Fred looks at him with confusion but then realizes something. 

Fred: All of this...over her?

Lord Fred looks down at his counterpart, glaring a bit. 

Fred: What? She pissed you off enough to-

Lord Fred: YOU DON’T KNOW WHAT I FEEL!!!

Fred: She...she died. Didn’t she?

Lord Fred glared a bit and walked back to Fred and looked at him. 

Lord Fred: Keep your friends close. Otherwise, they will die next. 

Fred: Enough of this! Where’s the key? Where’s the portal? 

Lord Fred: Are you not seeing the bigger picture? Are you not seeing the untapped solutions here? And are you not seeing the strength we weld here? I saved my world! 

Fred looked down at his counterpart and glared. He slowly walked over and leaned down until he was eye-level with Lord Fred. 

Fred: You didn’t save anything. You just sent it to oblivion. 

Lord Fred: (Sighs) You know...that’s exactly what Isaac said to me. 

Lord Fred raised his feet and kicked Fred in the chest, launching him back. Fred slid along the ground as Lord Fred lunged at him. Both extend their blades and clash with one another. Each blocking their attacks as they both try to attack one another. Each Fred mirrors themselves with blade clashes, attempted elbow hits and matching punches. Each of the Freds throw another punch and slide back due to the force.

Fred: What did you do to him?!

Lord Fred: He was a threat! He wanted to bring back war and death!

Fred yells and runs towards his evil counterpart. Lord Fred’s wrist blade lights up as he yells and spins around, sending a massive wave of fire towards Fred. Fred places a hand and pushes the fire aside. However, Lord Fred lunges down and stabs the ground where Fred was standing. Fred dashes forward and goes in for a kick to Lord’s head. Lord Fred counters with his own kick, blocking the attack all together. Like before, the two men begin to exchange kicks over and over again, each attack matching one another. 

Fred and Lord Fred’s attacks create a large enough force to push one another back. Lord Fred’s eyes become red and he fires off a massive beam of heat from his eyes. Fred raises his hands and stops the attack, being pushed back ever so slightly. Fred takes a step forward and pushes the fire back. Lord Fred stops his heat vision and rolls off to the side to avoid the blast. Fred runs up and begins to throw punches at the Lord, but Lord Fred is able to outmatch him and punch him down to the ground. 

As Fred looks up, he sees Lord Fred throwing a punch down at him. Fred raises his feet and blocks the punch. He does a breakdance maneuver and pushes Lord Fred back. Fred springs to his feet and raises his arms. Lord Fred was able to get back and wrap one arm around Fred’s and pull down his arm. Lord Fred knees Fred in the face, knocking him back and making Fred grip his nose a bit. Fred backs up a bit as Lord Fred runs up and tries to kick his real world version. After about the third kick, Fred grabbed Lord Fred’s ankle and moved around to his right, making Lord Fred yell in pain. Fred throws Lord Fred to the ground. 

As Fred is about to attack his dark counterpart again, Lord Fred snaps his fingers and the lights in the room blow up and the force sends them through the ground onto the floor below. The two fall down in a large cave chamber, each throwing punches at one another as they fall. Lord Fred punches Fred again, making the young man use a stone pillar as a pole to swing around and regain his bearings. 

Lord Fred: I knew I couldn’t settle things with you. And I knew you were about to-

Fred’s feet light up as he uses his semblance to shoot up and get into the shadows for safety. Lord Fred barely misses Fred’s foot as the latter flies off into the shadows. Lord Fred begins to walk back through the cave, trying to find Fred. 

Lord Fred: What are you hiding for?

Fred: I do my best work from the dark. Remember those mobsters?

Lord Fred: Yes, but that doesn't work. Not anymore. What did that ever gain other than putting a few punks in jail and scaring a few more. 

Fred: It all adds up.

Lord Fred: Not fast enough. If you want to make real change, if you truly want to make the world a better place, you need to step out from the shadows! Take over! Like we did!

As the above is spoken, Fred is still hidden as Lord Fred walks around, speaking to him. 

Fred: We?

Lord Fred: I couldn’t have done this alone. 

Fred: They would have stopped you. 

Lord Fred: But they didn’t. And I treasure them for that. 

Fred: You used them!

Lord Fred: Think about the results. A world where there’s no crime, no pain, no victims. 

As the above is spoken, scenes of Fred and Lord Fred are shown. Each being played as the other speaks, trying to find the other. 

Fred: And no choice. 

Fred turns around and sees Lord Fred standing behind him. Lord Fred lunges at him but Fred extends his blade and cuts some of Lord Fred’s shirt, giving him a small cut along the chest. Like before, Lord Fred uses a stone pillar to make a smooth transition down to the ground. He glares upwards to where Fred was before, anger on his face. 

Fred: Who elected you anyway?!

Lord Fred: Who elected YOU? The problem with democracy is, it doesnt keep you very safe. 

Fred: It has other virtues, but you seem to have forgotten them.

Lord Fred: I didn’t forget! I just chose peace and security instead.

Fred: You grabbed power!!!

Fred appears on a rock, looking down at Lord Fred, ready to attack. 

Lord Fred: And with that power, I’ve ensured a world where no 6 year old boy will ever lose his parents again!!! All because of some punk with a gun!

Fred stops himself, almost stunned. Some metal hits the rock and Lord Fred spins around, ready to attack. However, he sees the Scorch Blades falling to the ground. He looks up and sees Fred standing there, stoic look, staring down at him. 

Fred: You win. 

Lord Fred’s eyes turn red as the world around them slowly fades from existence. 

Lord Fred: And you just lost. 

Lord Fred takes out the key and crushes it in his hands. Lord Fred converts himself into a spiritual like demon image, the Guardian Spirit as the world becomes a white void. Fred looks at the spirit with some shock until his eyes open in the real world once again. Fred’s mouth is filled with some liquid as Tempus appears next to him with a bowl.

Tempus: Spit it out! Spit it all out!

Fred does so, throwing up into the bowl. After a couple of moments, Fred stops and leans back onto the table. Tempus sets the bowl down and looks at Fred with some concern and sadness. 

Fred: I...I couldn’t. I...I…

Tempus: (Sighs) The hardest demons we must face are the ones we find in ourselves. They are us. But...you weren’t ready to fight yourself. And that is your largest fault. You did not realize until now...you are just like him. And now, you know how that claim can be made. 

Tempus began to walk off, leaving Fred to lay there on the table. Fred just watches Tempus walk off. Fred pants in pain as reality slowly comes back to him. The final words of Tempus echoing in his head. 

Scene cuts to black.


	8. Tails Tied

After the opening, Ember is seen with Leia and May with some Burns Security forces. The three of them seem to be coordinating a future attack run as Mason steps out from the Academy’s entrance to see them. He sighs and walks over to them. As they are working, May glances back and sees Mason walking towards them. She lightly tabs Ember and Leia as they turn around too to face Mason. They stand at attention as Mason sighs and walks up to meet them face to face. 

Ember: Sir.

Mason: Enough of that. I’m going out there for this one. 

May: You’re calling our mission off?

Mason: You kids need a break. Besides, it’s been awhile since I was out in the field. Get rested and relax for the day. Oh..and Theodore did want to speak to you three. Violet too. 

Leia: And the real reason comes out. 

Mason: It’s a quick talk. Nothing more. Besides, if I don’t take the Wolves out for a fight, they get rowdy. 

Ember sighed and walked back to the Academy with May quickly joining him. Leia watches as some Wolf Tribe Ships take off and Mason too. She then walks back to the Academy’s doors and joins her teammates outside of Theodore’s office. The three turn to one another and nod a bit and walk inside. In the office is Apatite, Amethyst and Violet all standing together with Theodore at his desk. The three walk over and join Violet on the couch in front of the headmaster’s desk. 

Ember: Problem?

Theodore: Yes and no. 

Leia: (Whispers to Violet) What’s happening?

Violet: (Whispering back) No idea. He wouldn’t talk till now. 

Theodore: (Clears throat) Now then. Ever since you arrived in the capitol four months ago, you had held a theory that somewhere in Exanimum Fields lies an external fortress meant to house our enemies for their invasion of Vacuo. Do you still believe this to be true?

Ember looks over to Leia and May. They nod and Ember looks back at the headmaster. 

Ember: Yes, sir.

Theodore: Good. Because your hypothesis has been proven fact. 

Theodore places some pictures onto his desk and Ember and Violet grab them. They are images of Fort Frollo in all of its glory along with images of the Fusion Cannons. 

Theodore: Grimm Activity in the area had skyrocketed in the last month, so I sent the remnants of Team RBIE out to investigate. Low and behold, they were able to locate the fortress along with the horde upon horde of Grimm there. I currently have those three still on recon, and so far, it has paid off. The three have been able to locate structural weak points. 

Theodore points to three circles within the images. Leia nods and looks over them as well. 

Leia: A couple of BIC explosives could probably do enough damage to these points. Assuming they don't get reinforced within the next month. And you’re telling us this because…?

Apatite: Because the Council has elected that we take action. Today is the last day for military strikes for the next month. 

Violet: Pulling assaults on an already dwindling army isn’t a good plan. We need to-

Theodore: There isn’t an army to attack.

Ember: What?

Theodore: RBIE has reported that all Ombre Army troopers have been pulled out of the Vacuo. Up until the Green Mountains there is little to no military occupation at all. It’s just Grimm. Which means, we have time. Time to prepare and to assemble our forces. 

May: ...We’re launching a strike against them. Aren’t we?

Theodore: That is correct. The entire Vacuo Militia, forces from Vale, Menagerie Militia, all available huntsmen and huntresses, the remaining members of the Wolf Tribe and Bluejay Crew will all assemble here in a month’s time. Then we take the bastard down. 

Leia: Wait? Vale? How-

Theodore: Glynda has already assumed Ozpin’s previous position and has informed the council of what is happening in Vacuo. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the entire world knew of Salem’s existence. So, we are assembling all we can. And we kill that bastard. Even if it means ripping him apart atom by excruciating atom. 

He turns back to the four and sighs a little and walks back to his desk. 

Theodore: Please. Take some time to relax a little. You will need your strength. But...you will train. And you will push yourself to your limit. You will push until your bones crack and then they will heal just as fast as they broke. Do you understand?

Violet: Little bit of pressure, huh Doc?

Apatite: (Softly) Violet. 

Theodore: Ms. Eclairage, I am trying to save this kingdom and world. I just want everyone to be as prepared as possible. Understand. 

Violet glared a bit and walked out of the room. Both Apatite and Amethyst reached out to their daughter. Amethyst sighed and walked out of the room after her daughter. Leia stands up next and looks at Theodore. 

Leia: I’ll get started on some work. Try to improve some weapons and tech. 

May: Ember and I can continue patrol runs. Just to make sure the perimeter is well defended. 

Theodore: Very well then. Get going then. 

The three nodded and walked out of the room. Theodore turned back to the window and sighed a bit. 

Apatite: Sorry about that. I’ve done all I could to try and-

Theodore: Don’t be. She’s a huntress now. She’s allowed to speak her mind, especially in my office. And besides, at this point, I can clearly see that she is no fan of being told what to do. Let her find her own way to lead, then move in from there. 

Apatite: I’ll try. But she’s always been more of her mother’s speed.

Theodore: Obviously. But for the time being, this is the first time since the organization of the military that the council has not hamstrung me. We need to take full advantage of this. And if we found their true base of operations, we have no choice. 

Apatite: I understand.

Theodore: Good. We must prepare then.  
___________________________________________________  
Back at the Wolf Tribe’s main hideout, a couple of guards including Gris Loup and Lupo Grigo. They look up when they hear an engine sound and see a large ship slowly descending down onto their landing platform. Lupo walked forward along with Gris, both of them getting weapons ready. From the bay doors of the ship descends Lavenza, Damson and Roz. All three walk up to Lupo and Lavenza bows slightly.

Lavenza: We come to speak to your chief.

Lupo: Evidently. Come. 

Lupo and Gris began to lead the three back through the halls of the Wolf Tribe’s lair. As they walk through the halls, numerous tribe members all look on in anger, some even growling a little as they walk up to the main chamber. Once inside, they see Farkas Barna. He looks at him and drops drinking his beer and chucks it at the wall. Both Lupo and Gris move to stand in front of Farkas. 

Farkas: Well. What do we have here? A couple of bastards. Huh. What can I do for you today?

Lavenza: An arrangement with our Master. 

Farkas: Well, you see. My deal was with Ombre. Where is he?

Lavenza: Dead. Unfortunately. 

Farkas: Well...we have nothing to say then. 

Lavenza: I thought your model was “Do work for money.”

Farkas: Well, you see. Your operation kinda conflicts with my moral compass. I can’t really condone what you do. So...I’m done working with you. Lupo if you could escort these fine attendees out of my home, that would be terrific. 

Lupo takes out her staff and slowly walks up to Lavenza but he raises his hand to stop her. 

Lavenza: I’m not quite sure you understand. Lord Onyx has requested your presence. You will come with us. 

Farkas: Uh...no.

Lavenza: It is either your life...or the lives of your tribe.

Farkas: (Sarcastic) Ha ha. (Serious tone) Kill ‘em.

Lupo and Gris take out pistols and open fire at the three. Roz and Lavenza leap back as Damson’s tail begins to block some of the gunfire. Roz also uses her sword to block the bullets as some dogs are released and runs towards the trio. Lavenza converts his cybernetic arm into a cannon and opens fire, killing the dogs. 

From the side, a door opens and more tribe members emerge and begin to fire at the three. Damson leaps over and bites down on the neck of one and pulls, tearing it clean off. Damson’s tail whips around his first victim and stabs another one through their torso. Damson flips over the person and grabs a third tribe member and throws them into Gris, knocking both down. Farkas stands up and fires two rounds at Damson, warding him away from his men. 

Roz blocks some more bullets and knees a tribe member in the stomach. She throws the tribesman back and leaps away from Lupo who attempted to stab her. Lavenza converts his arm back to a usual shape and takes out Prometheus. He presses a button along the side and changes the rounds to “Grenade” and fires. The meeting chamber slowly goes up into flames as the three leap back and get out of the room. 

Farkas: Kill them!

Lupo and Gris lead a charge to fight off the trio of invaders. As the three run outside, Damson leaps onto a guard and bites into their face, tearing some of it off. Lavenza fires off sounds rounds as Roz uses her semblance to create a small shield to block attacks. Lupo and the Tribe emerges and begins to surround the trio. 

Each member blocks and tries to fire back at the opposing attacks as more and more Wolf Tribe members move in to attack. As they are, rockets blow up a small group of Wolf Tribe members. They hear laughing and look up to see Lavender and some Ombre soldiers. 

Lavender: I see the negotiations went as planned!

Roz: Secure this platform!

Lavender points forward and bullheads move in and begin to drop off Ombre soldiers. Lavender drops some grenades and blasts the troopers back. Gris, Lupo and the rest of the tribe get into cover as more ships land with Ombre soldiers. Some Ombre soldiers are shot and are slowly taken out, but the overwhelming numbers slowly push the bandits back. 

Lupo: Retreat! Retreat! Back inside!

The Wolf Tribe runs inside, firing back slightly as to cover themselves. Damson takes point and blocks the bullets with his tail. On his left is Lavenza and on his right is Roz. The three then lead troops inside. As Lavender and the Ombre soldiers continue onward, Lavenza, Damson and Roz take a slower approach. From the ceiling is Lupo, waiting to attack. As the three pass under her, she leaps down and knocks Roz to the ground and kicks Lavenza up the pathway. 

Damson goes in for a strike but Lupo ducks and Gris hits Damson with his hat. Roz growls and kicks Lupo to her feet and Roz stands back up. Roz begins to slash at Lupo, trying to hit her in anyway. Gris runs up to Damson and flips over him. Gris begins to unleash some kicks onto Damson, trying to hit him but Damson is too fast and avoids them all. Damson counters one attack and begins to throw punches at Gris. 

Gris uses his metallic hat to defend himself but Damson keeps punching, forming dent after dent into it. Damson’s tail wraps around Gris and the former unleashes a mighty punch and impales Gris onto his tail. Damson growls and throws the man into the wall, forming a massive splatter of blood. 

Lavenza slowly stands back up and looks to see some Wolf Tribe members staring into the main room. Lavenza extends his bayonet and runs at them, slashing them and killing them instantly. He turns back to see Roz and Lupo still going at it. Lupo tries to attack Roz, but the latter out maneuvers her trips Lupo onto the ground. Despite having a clear shot, Roz doesn’t thrust the blade forward to kill. Lupo is still stabbed from behind though as she falls to the ground dead as Lavenza stands there. 

Lavenza: It is illogical to let our enemies live. 

Lavenza walks forward into the main hall as Damson walks past Roz as well and snarls at her. They enter and see Lavender kneeing Farkas in the stomach. She turns back to them and smiles.   
Lavender: He’s all yours.

Lavenza: Excellent.

Lavenza throws a punch and knocks Farkas out.  
____________________________________________________  
Back inside the Citadel, Farkas is thrown to the ground inside the meeting chamber. Farkas coughs and looks up to see Onyx standing before him. 

Onyx: It is nice to finally meet you face to face, Chieftain. 

Farkas: Can’t say the feeling is mutual. Now then, you killed two of my top lieutenants. I believe I should get to kill two of yours. I nominate the scorpion guy and the mad scientist.

Farkas chuckles until Onyx grabs him by the throat and pulls him up. Onyx slowly begin to strangle him as the members of the Lower Cabal and Stier and Lavender watch. Onyx looks at Farkas dead in the eye and glares at him. 

Onyx: So then, how were you able to get in contact with my men?

Farkas: Well, (gags) Seeing as you came for me..piece it together, num-nuts! They came to me too! 

Onyx tightens his grip on Farkas’ neck, slowly killing him. 

Onyx: This is all a sick joke to you, isn't it?

Farkas: (Struggling) No joke chief. 

Onyx: Then how did you do it?

Onyx tightens his grip around Farkas’ neck. Farkas just begins to punch Onyx’s arm, trying to get him to loosen his grip. After some failed attempts, Farkas just looks back at Onyx and tries to kick the lord in order to get out. 

Onyx: Yes, because that is supposed to harm me. 

Farkas: You...will never be...a god.

Onyx: (Scoffs) Godhood implies impotence. Arrogance. Entitlement. Lack of discipline. And an extreme sense of irony. Besides…(Onyx tightens his grip as Farkas is about to die) I tried godhood once. (Onyx comes closer to snapping Farkas’ neck) I found it rather limiting.

Onyx applies more pressure and snaps Farkas’ neck, killing him instantly. Onyx drops the body onto the ground and steps over it and walks to the head of the table. Roz has a look of shock on her face and looks over to Onyx. Damson snickers as he slowly moves over to the body.

Onyx: Colonel, have someone clean that mess up. 

Stier nods and runs out to grab some troopers. 

Onyx: Now we can move onto the next issue. Continuing our investigation into our traitor. 

Lavender and Roz look at one another. 

Lavender: I thought we already did that?

Onyx: No. We simply found the supplier. Not the perpetrator. Dr. Volt, you and Ms. Quazro will oversee the troops over the next 24 hours. If a single one of them steps out of line, execute them. We will squeeze these troopers until our rebel can be found. Ms. Kristal. You and I will look into the belly of this Citadel. The possibility that our traitor found his or her way down into depths is present. 

Lavender: Yes-yes sir.

Onyx: Good. Move out. 

Damson: And me, Master?

Onyx looks down at Damson and then at Farkas’ body. 

Onyx: The body.

Damson nods and dashes over and begins to eat Farkas’ corpse. Lavender gulps silently as Onyx walks past her. He waves and she silently follows.  
___________________________________________________  
Onyx and Lavender are walking through some underground passages under the Citadel. Lavender is completely silent as they continue to walk through the passages. They stop inside a large chamber and laying there are some drills and other mining equipment. 

Lavender: The mining gear? Why is it still here?!

Onyx: A most valid question. 

Lavender: Uh, forgive me, Lord Onyx. I believed Ms. Quarzo was in charge of all military movements. 

Onyx growls slightly as Lavender begins to back up a little.

Lavender: But since the death of General Ombre, we all have had to assume additional responsibilities. So clearly…(chuckles) some mistakes were made. 

Onyx: Clearly. Some mistakes.

Onyx punches the wall and pulls out one of the bombs supplied by Farkas to Lavender. She goes silent as Onyx looks it over. 

Onyx: Only a select handful were made aware of this chamber. So how did it get here? 

Lavender: Lord Onyx, I can explain.

Onyx crushes the bomb and looks at Lavender.

Onyx: DO NOT TAKE ME AS A FOOL, LAVENDER!! 

Lavender goes silent, trying to think of an answer. Onyx then slowly begins to walk towards her.

Onyx: I’ve been aware of your transgressions since the very beginning. What only did you free the Ignis’ and the Fumis’ but you used their escape to attempt an assassination on myself and my troops. 

Lavender: You know about that?!

Onyx: I can assure you, the eyes and ears of Grimm are everywhere. The fact is, Lavender, despite your treachery, I’ve allowed you to carry on this long because I took a certain delight in following your string of failures. But you've finally become tiresome, predictable. You've hit rock bottom.

Onyx aims his cannon at Lavender’s face. She holds up her hands and covers her head. 

Lavender: Please! I...I can make it up to you! I...I can find more resources and men and-

Onyx: Truth be told, I did enjoy the loss of life. Made it easier for the Grimm to be ready. 

Lavender: But...you...you said you cared for Damson’s safety and-and the funeral-

Onyx: You aren’t the only one with a keen sense of deception. You really think I give a damn about anyone’s well being?! (Chuckles) That is the humor I enjoy from you. Quite entertaining. 

Lavender: ...Just one more chance! I swear to you. 

Onyx glares down at her. After a couple of seconds, he lowers his cannon. Lavender slowly looks up and is in shock. Onyx steps back and gives her a path to leave. 

Onyx: One last chance. 

Lavender: Thank you...Lord Onyx.

Lavender stands up and looks up at Onyx. He simply gestured for her to walk. She does so, passing him. After a couple of seconds, Lavender gasps. Pan down to show that Onyx has just stabbed her clean through the stomach and chest. Onyx leans down next to Lavender’s head to get her to hear him.

Onyx: Your second chance was spent when you blew up my Citadel. Try again in the next life.

Onyx retracts the blade and Lavender falls to the ground, dead. Onyx looks down at her corpse and rolls his eyes and steps over her body. 

Onyx: Humans. Always the weakest link.

Onyx retracts his blade and walks off, leaving Lavender’s dead body on the ground. 

Scene cuts to black.


	9. The Plague Doctor

After the opening, Fred is seen slowly walking out of the temple’s main entrance. He sighs and slowly walks over to the side of the entrance. He pants and sighs, leaning up against it and closes his eyes and rubs his eyes. Images of Lord Fred appear in his memory, the perfect society he wanted was right there and he gave into it. He hears Lord Fred chuckle as his mirror image appears on the rock behind Fred.

Lord Fred: You were far too easy. No wonder why mom and dad hated you so much. You cried like a little one, so ready to go in for the easy track, to murder, to believe that it was a righteous path. You sad little man, you. 

Fred quickly turns around and punches the rock. Fred yells as he slowly pulls away from the hole in the rock, his fist bloody and the rock completely shattered. Fred looks at his hand and yells, going to his knees in pain. Some tears fall from his eyes and Fred leans and rests his head against the rock wall. 

From the main entrance of the temple, Tempus is seen watching Fred. He sighs and walks over to Fred and places a hand down on his shoulder. Fred slowly turns his head over and looks up at Tempus. Tempus gives him a sigh and slowly picks Fred back up to his feet. He wipes away a tear in Fred’s eye and slowly walks back to the fire pit. Fred looks over as Tempus sits down and sighs a little. 

Tempus: You may have failed the test, but that does not mean you failed as a human.

Fred: I...I’m a monster. I’m just like him. 

Tempus: The test of self was meant to show your deepest desires. You desired for the same thing he did. And you had the will to act on it in that timeline.

Fred: I don’t...I don’t desire that.

Tempus: Evidently you do. The most noble of souls want world peace. It is their methods that make them fall from grace.

Fred: So...I guess my arrogance is what kills us all then. 

Tempus: Arrogance does not make one a monster. Especially if they can truly see where that arrogance will lead them. 

Fred: I took over the world! Enslaved it! 

Tempus: Well, do you believe that path is necessary for peace?

Fred: No! Maybe. I don’t know. I just escaped slavery, I don’t want to impose that on anyone else. I just...I don’t know anymore. 

Tempus watched as Fred fell to his knees, trying to formulate an answer. He slowly got up and walked over to the young man. He softly placed a hand down on Fred’s head. 

Tempus: You now see your arrogance and where it could lead. The question now becomes, what will you do with it? Will you take the lessons you learned or run away to live a different life than you intended?

Fred: ...what if I choose the former?

Tempus: Then stand up. We have a lot of work to do. Are you willing to power through it all?  
Fred looked back up at Tempus. Fred wiped his eyes a little and slowly stood up. Tempus grabbed Fred’s arm and patted him. 

Tempus: You can beat yourself all you want. But will not help anyone. A world of extremes cannot exist. With order, there must be chaos. And without one to counteract the other, there is nothing but pain. 

Fred takes a few steps away from Tempus and looks across the Vacuo skyline. He takes a deep breath and glances back.

Fred: Then where do we start?

Tempus smirks and enters a fighting stance with his walking stick. 

Tempus: Try to get me off my feet, young one.

Fred raised his arms and yelled as he flipped forward to deliver a kick to Tempus’ face.  
________________________________________________  
Inside the Citadel, Onyx is seen back at his council chamber, looking out across the world. He slowly reaches behind him and pulls out Clara’s stuff dog. He looks it over, turning it a little as he looks at it from all angles. 

Onyx: The time has come. I know I am brutal. But everything I do is for you. People like you. I hope that somewhere, among those cosmos you find it in your heart to forgive me. And know, I do this to help you. To help the world in which I live in. 

Onyx softly pets the stuffed animal, trying not to cry. He closes his eyes and sucks in a tear as he slowly places the dog back along his waist to keep it from view. Along his waist are several silver eyes, harvested from Silver-Eyed Warriors. 

From the doors, Dr. Volt steps into the room.

Lavenza: I take it she’s dead.

Onyx: Her body is in the catacombs.

Lavenza: Fitting.

Lavenza walked over and stood next to Onyx. 

Lavenza: You do know we are now down another lieutenant. And with Stier’s traitorous speech... 

Onyx: I am aware my staff is lowering. But that was to be expected as our enemies die as well. Damson is currently taking out a few military commanders from Vacuo and Vale. It appears they are forming an army. 

Lavenza: It would be logical to assume communication has drawn many into the war against the Guardian. 

Onyx: Or against us. No matter. I have found a suitable candidate to replace General Ombre. He is quick, deadly, and efficient. 

Lavenza: The Plague Doctor?

Onyx: Precisely. I’ve already sent him on a new assignment.

Lavenza: Do you believe he will be loyal?

Onyx: Lavenza, outside of you, I believe he would be the most loyal of them all. 

Lavenza: I see...Master, do you believe we are moving too quickly? According to the Colonel that ever since the Battle of Canary, you have been far more aggressive in your stake of the kingdom’s countryside. 

Onyx: Lavenza, I understand you need to feel concerned. But if we hesitate, the Guardian will come after us and slaughter us. We move now while he still crawls, we would have ensured victory for ourselves. 

Lavenza: Then why do we not just assault the city right now?

Onyx: Is Project Judicator ready?

Lavenza is silent.

Onyx: That and the message has yet to be sent out.

Lavenza: Message?

Onyx doesn’t answer, rather he just looks out. The two returned their gaze out across the Land of Darkness, standing in silence.  
_________________________________________________________  
Along the perimeter of Vacuo, Ember, May, and Leia are seen doing border patrol. Ember glances out across the sea of sand and covers his eyes slightly. 

Ember: Of course, the one-time Eadwulf’s not here with sunglasses. The hottest day of the year. 

Leia: (Calling back) No it’s not! Summer’s not for another month! We still got time till then.

Ember: Thanks for the information dumb, Madam Library.

Leia: If that’s your best material, you got a lot of work to do, my friend. 

Ember huffs lightly. May takes a step back and pats him on the chest and runs up to catch up to Leia. Ember sighs and continues onward with them. As they are walking, Ember groans and stops as the girls keep walking. They turn back to face him and see him slid his hands down his face and hear him groan again. 

Leia: What’s your problem?

Ember: We’ve been doing these border patrols for the past 2 weeks! And nothing! No Grimm, no soldiers! Nothing! Meanwhile, we have a few military scouting parties that have gone completely MIA. 

May: Don’t go too crazy. Be patient. Our time will come again. Just be fortunate that we actually have a break at all. 

Leia: Lucky for you two to say. I’ve been running around with BIC security and trying to develop new defense systems. This is the best break in the past year! 

Ember: Well, that’s not depressing at all.

Leia: Well hey, once we finish here, I’m going to get drunk off of ice cream sundaes. 

Ember: Or you could just get drunk in general.

May elbows Ember slightly. He winces a little as she keeps walking. 

Ember: Yeah, yeah. I get it. 

Ember walked forward a bit but slowly turned his head out to the desert. On a small bluff, he sees a figure with a cloak around his neck. He cocked an eyebrow. Due to his impromptu stop, May and Leia stopped as well and looked out to see the figure. 

Leia: Uh...who is that?

Ember: Refugee maybe?

May pulls out her rifle and takes aim. She uses the scope to look the man over. She lowers the gun and looks at her teammates.

May: Don’t think so. Whoever it is does not look native. 

The three look at one another and then back in the direction of the man only to see him gone. Ember cocks an eyebrow as the three look back to one another. 

Leia: I highly doubt the three of us saw the exact same mirage all at once. 

Ember: Yeah…

Ember shrugs and keeps on walking. The girls look at one another and do the same thing. As they are all walking, Ember’s left ear twitches a little. In an instant, he spins around with his pistol loaded and aims past May. She sidesteps as the man from before appears behind them. He has a plague doctor’s mask and a top hat and is running full speed at them.

Ember fires at the Plague Doctor, but he ducks under the bullets and flips over Ember. Under the cloak, the man produces a hook with an iron chain and grabs Ember’s wrist with it. The Doctor lands and pulls the chain with Ember. The Plague Doctor kicks Ember and launches him into May. Leia runs up and swings her club at the Plague Doctor who ducks under the strike and spins around the blonde. 

The Doctor’s chain wraps around Leia’s neck and he pulls, slowly suffocating her. The Doctor spins around and throws Leia into the metal wall of Vacuo before leaping off of it and kicking her in the face. The Plague Doctor glances backward and evades a slash from May. May flips her blade around and goes in for a stab to the Doctor’s spine. 

The Plague Doctor pulls on his chain and uses it to act like a shield. He blocks the attack from May and kicks the chain back to attack her again. May steps to the side to avoid the attack. The Plague Doctor spins around and swings his chain down to attack May again. May ducks under the chain and uses her sword to block it from her back. She lunges forward and flips, trying to stab the Plague Doctor. 

The Plague Doctor leaps back slightly to avoid the hits and leaps over and runs along the wall. As he approaches Ember, he throws his chain down and wraps it around Ember, and leaps over the Faunus. The Plague Doctor pulls and throws Ember over his person and down along the ground. The Plague Doctor turns back and looks down at Ember. He growls and gets himself up to his feet. He pulls with his upper body strength and slowly drags the chain back. The Plague Doctor pulls back but Ember growls a little and pulls back even more. 

The Plague Doctor looks up and sees Leia and May take aim and shoot towards him. The Plague Doctor shifts himself to stand in front of Ember and dodges the bullets. The Plague Doctor runs forward and kicks Ember in the chin and launches him up in the air. He pulls along the chain and unties Ember who spins through the air and crashes down onto the earth. The Plague Doctor backflips from the three. 

May kneels down next to Ember as Leia continues to take aim at the man. The Plague Doctor takes off his hat and pulls out a calling card and throws it directly at the three. He places the hat back on his head and bows. He then grabs his hat and pulls it down, going through a portal and disappearing. 

The three pant and look at one another. Leia walks over and picks up the card. Her eyes widen as she slowly turns back to her teammates. On the card is Onyx’s emblem. Ember and May look at one another. 

Ember: Well crap.   
_________________________________________________________  
Inside Theodore’s office, Ember slams the card down onto his desk. Theodore looks at it and then goes back to Ember. Standing in the room with them are the members of FLME and VILE, all looking at the headmaster and friend with shock. Theodore slowly reaches over and grabs the card and looks it over. 

Leia: Since when does the Prince of Darkness give out calling cards?

Theodore: When he gets cocky. All because the Guardian is dead, he believes us to be destroyable. He’s giving us a warning. Very well then, we shall show him. 

Violet: And we are showing him, what exactly?

Theodore: How much of a pain in the ass we can all be. All deployments have returned to the capital. We are fortifying the walls now. And so, we must silence him. 

Ing: And we do that how?

Theodore: We push up the advancement. I will relay information to you all once RBIE returns from scouting. Good luck to you all.   
___________________________________________________  
Back inside in the Citadel, Onyx is still looking out across the Land of Darkness. From behind him, the Plague Doctor falls through the portal and lands behind Onyx. Onyx glances back to the Doctor. 

Onyx: I take it our message was properly delivered.

The Plague Doctor nodded in response.

Onyx: Good. A fair fight then. We will be ready to launch within the coming days. 

The Plague Doctor walked up to Onyx and showed him a scroll. Onyx looked down and saw the Doctor had taken a picture of Leia, May, and Ember. Onyx glares a bit before the Doctor closes the scroll. 

Onyx: With those three present and the Guardian somehow still alive…

Onyx gritted his teeth together and cracked his neck. He turns to the Plague Doctor and looks down at the man. 

Onyx: I want you to take out another target. Damson will be killing huntsmen and military officials. I need you to eliminate political leaders. Do you think you could do that?

The Plague Doctor nodded again. 

Onyx: Good. Your target should be simple. But his wife on the other hand will be a bit more brutal. I want you to kill Apatite Eclairage and his wife, Amethyst. Is that a little too easy for you?

The Plague Doctor tighten his glove and took off his hat. From it, a portal opened and he placed his hat back on. The Plague Doctor then walked through and the doorway closed behind him.

Onyx: Get to work.  
_____________________________________________  
A zoom into Onyx’s eye to pan out to see a seer Grimm overseeing the construction of Fort Frollo. As it moves out of the way, an eagle is seen in the far background flying around. It begins to fly off. As it flies away, a few Grimm are seen below it and begin to chase after the bird. The eagle looks down and cries out as it begins to fly away faster and faster. 

It crows again as a bullhead is seen coming straight towards the bird as more and more Grimm appear and ready to strike. 

Scene cuts to black.


	10. Follow Up Appointment

After the opening, Tempus is seen slowly waking up from his bed. He yawns and smacks his lips together slightly and rubs his eyes. He cracks his neck and back and slowly stands back up. He kicks with both legs and cracked them. Tempus then grabbed his walking staff and slowly made his way out of the room. Down the hall, he peered into another bedroom to see it empty with a few books laying around. He cocks and eyebrow and begins to walk throughout the temple. 

He adventures down into the library. Next is some of the live stock he has scattered around the temple in pens with some sunlight. As Tempus continues to look around, he is far more confused than anything else. Finally, he walks into a small study near the front of the temple. Once again, nothing is there. He cocks an eyebrow and hears some yells and grunts. 

He then slowly begins to walk outside of the temple and looks around. He hears some fire go off and sees what looks like a small explosion go off behind the mountain. He hears more grunts and bangs. He turns his head and sees Fred is leaping from rock pillar to pillar, running an agility course. Fred leaps onto one pillar and begins to climb up it, and back flipping off of the top. Tempus nods a bit as Fred leans to a mountain face and runs along side of it, slowly descending down. Fred leaps onto a pillar and swings around, catapulting himself around. 

Tempus smiles slightly as Fred moves from pillar to pillar. As he keeps moving, Tempus walks over to a pillar and stands beside it. Fred launches himself from a different pillar to the one Tempus was standing next to. He smirks and slams his cane against the pillar, destroying it. Fred’s eyes widen and he spins through the air, slides along the ground and back flips and lands along the side of another pillar. Fred glares down at Tempus as the old man has a smile on his face. 

Fred: What was that for?

Tempus: Just seeing what you can do. Not being able to see the straight path ahead of you can always be a pain.

Fred: Which is why you adept. 

Tempus: I take it that was a lesson.

Fred nodded. Tempus chuckled a bit before he looked at his cane. 

Tempus: The Burn it.

Tempus’ tattoos lit up along his arm. He smirked and threw the cane at the pillar and crushed it. Fred landed on some rock and flipped around and slid along the main plateau of the temple. Fred side stepped from his original position as the cane threw through the air and back into Tempus’ hands. Fred looks at him and smirks slightly.

Fred: Those aren’t real, are they?

Tempus: Synthetic. Got ‘em back in the day. Make fighting far easier.

Fred: Good to know. 

Tempus leaps forward and slams his cane down onto Fred’s forearms. Fred pushes back against the attack and gets Tempus away from him. Fred runs forward and throws a punch. As Tempus goes to block, he quickly pulls his fist back and goes in to knee the old man. Tempus slaps Fred’s knee and jabs his cane into Fred’s neck. Fred grabs his neck and Tempus slaps him in the face with his staff. 

Fred goes to the ground and does a break dance maneuver and tries to get Tempus off balance. Tempus backs up a little as Fred gets to his feet. Fred flips forward, going in for a summersault kick. Tempus blocks it with his staff but Fred stomps onto the ground with his other leg and causes some fire to flare up at the old man. Tempus leaps back a little and looks at Fred. 

Fred: Been reading up on some combat moves. 

Tempus: Evidently. But you should always be prepared for the unexpected.

Tempus’ tattoos light up and the cane launches outward and bounces off of the rock and shoots towards Fred’s head. He ducks backwards and Tempus runs up and jumps. He grabs his staff and slams it down onto Fred’s chest. Fred is sent onto the ground and Tempus flips backwards. He chuckles a little as he watches Fred. 

Tempus: Remember your lessons. Not only from me, but from your own mind. Your people’s lessons. 

Fred springs back up with his hands and kicks Tempus’ arms and nearly hits his face. Fred lands, sliding along the ground. Tempus slams his staff down onto the ground and the entire earth became an electric field. Fred leaps around, dodging the electricity. As it hits Fred some more, Fred yells and slams his palm down, causing some of the electricity to sour up into the air. Tempus leaps down and grabs Fred’s head and pushes him down to the ground. 

Fred yells and the lighting flares up and shoots upward. While some miss or do not even go anywhere near Tempus, one is able to strike Tempus in the chest and launch him upwards and forcing him to land on his back. Fred forms two fists very slowly and pulls in the lighting to him and away from Tempus.

Fred yells and launches the lighting upward, panting a little and he falls down to his knees. He takes a few deep breaths before he stands up and looks over to Tempus. He sees that the staff has been destroyed. Fred pants a little and walks slowly over to Tempus, almost as if he was limping. He kneels down beside Tempus and looks over the old Guru. He almost begins to pant and freak out a little until Tempus slowly sits up in Fred’s arms. Fred sighs as Tempus crawls forward a bit and coughs again. 

Fred: I’m sorry! I didn’t mean...I didn’t mean to do that to you! I just-

Tempus slowly stands up and cracks his back. He looks at his arms, checking to make sure all the systems are alright. He turns back to Fred and offers the boy a hand up. Fred takes it and goes to his feet. Tempus pats his shoulder and begins to walk off slightly. 

Tempus: Your abilities seem to be more powerful as stress increases. Be calm. All because you are in a fight with an old man, does not mean you are about to die. 

Fred: How would you overcome this then?

Tempus places a hand on his chin, thinking. He smiles and snaps his fingers once his answer becomes clear. 

Tempus: Follow me.

Later, Fred is seen slowly climbing up a mountain side. On his back is Tempus, who is clinging on for dear life. Fred reaches a smaller cliff, much like the one he was trying to reach before. He pulls up and Tempus gets off of his back and slowly walks over. Fred pants a little and looks back to where Tempus walks over and gasps. Before him is a view of all of Vacuo. He can see as far as the Green Mountains, the valleys and deserts. He slowly walks over to Tempus and just has this look of awe on his face. 

Tempus: Enjoy it?

Fred: Yeah. It’s...wow.

Tempus: One of the tallest point in the whole Kingdom. I come up here every morning for mediation. 

Fred: I thought you meditated down at the entrance. 

Tempus: Oh heavens no. Way to rocky and uneven. Here, we have smooth stone, expertly crafted. More easy to relax.

Fred: Uh. Ok then.

Tempus walks over to a slab and sits down. He sighs and from under the slap pulls out a pillow. Fred’s eyes widen as he walks over to Tempus.

Tempus: What? I’ve lived here for 22 years. Of course I have house supplies everywhere. 

Fred: Got an extra one?

Tempus: Certainly. Climb back down and grab one.

Fred gives him an annoyed scowl but slowly forms a smile. He kneels down next to Tempus and looks out across the countryside. The two of them sit in silence as they let nature over take them. After a few moments of doing so, Fred turns back to Tempus. 

Fred: This is nice.

Tempus: Indeed it is. I suggest coming up here every so often. You will learn to love it more than just waking up and starting to train. You cannot push your body all the time. If you do that, then risk loosing your mind and becoming a machine hellbent on destruction. 

Fred: So, what would suggest I do. 

Tempus: Learn something new. Not just about the Guardians, but about the world in general. 

Fred: Then we have a lot to cover. 

Tempus: That we do. You know how to make tea?

Fred: I can look it up. 

Tempus: See? Something new about the world in general. Very good. Make me a cup and bring it up here. And if you could bring those cinder blocks up as well, that would be great. 

Fred: Wait, why?!

Tempus: I want to make a shrine up here. And I need construction equipment. 

Fred: Then get it yourself!

Tempus: Why do that when I could make a young, stronger man do it for me. And free of charge too! 

Tempus laughs, his voice leading to a light rasp. He coughs a little and waves Fred off. Fred laughs a bit and begins to stand up. Fred walks over and hops down the mountain. Tempus chuckles slightly as the training of the day begins. In a montage, Fred is seen running along the perimeter of the temple. He leaps from pillar to pillar, running through the agility course. As he runs through it, Tempus watches from above and sees him. 

Next, Fred is seen shadow boxing the air with some rope around his shoulders. Those ropes are connected to cinder blocks, holding him back and making it harder to punch. 

Fred is then seen inside, reading through one of the books provided as he cooks some tea. He suddenly burns himself and shakes his hand in some pain. He then licks his hand to cool it off a bit before he goes back to working on the tea. 

Following that, Fred is seen climbing the mountain again with different cinder blocks tied around his arms and leg. Fred struggles to climb up, especially since, on his head, he is balancing a tea cup as well. As Fred slowly passes by Tempus position to continue climbing, he slowly reaches up and grabs the cup of tea and shakingly places it down on the rock. Tempus takes it and hears a grunt and thud. 

Tempus looks back and sees Fred climbing back up the mountain beside theirs. He struggles, but aims on making it to the plateau at the very top. Some rocks crumble under his hands, but Fred continues onward and finds different footings. He looks around and sees a small ledge. His eyes widen and he pulls his left around over and drops the block down onto it. From there, he steps onto the block and uses it to climb to a more secure section of the mountain. 

Fred then continues to climb up, using different strategies to make movement efficient and safe. Tempus smiles as he sees Fred climbing up the mountain. 

Tempus: (To himself) Abraham, if you could see your boy now...I believe you would finally be one to call him…

As Fred reaches the top, he drops all the extra weights and falls to his knees. He yells as the sunsets on the horizon. 

Tempus: Guardian. 

Fred yells in victory some more as the day concludes.  
____________________________________________________  
Back at the Citadel, Roz walks down the hall and passes by Lavenza’s lab. She looks at the door and her hand shakes slightly. Roz leans into the door but does not open it. She takes a deep breath and places her ear to the door to hear anything that Lavenza may be discussing. 

Lavenza: I am fully aware of her unstable condition. That is why Lord Onyx disposed of her in the catacombs….No. I understand. 

Roz steps back from the door and looks at it with a confused look. She glances around, seeing if anyone is present. Roz continues to walk around the lower floors of the Citadel until she sees the elevator to the catacombs. She reaches an elevator and pulls a switch to bring the lift down to the catacombs. When she is out of view, the seer that was told to watch her slowly rounds the corner and begins to follow her to the elevator. 

Roz reaches the catacombs and slowly begins to walk through the underground chambers. She glances around and looks around at the stone walls. As she rounds the corner, Roz gasps and looks on in complete horror and shock. She looks at Lavender’s corpse on the ground. Dried blood is along the ground and staining Lavender’s clothes. 

Roz slowly walks over to the body and looks it over. She drops down to her knees as she looks over the body. She looks at the stab wound and is just completely speechless. She looks along the massive cut as and stops herself from reaching over to it. She pulls her arm back and just keeps looking over the body. She closes her eyes and slowly calms herself down and Roz stands back up. 

Roz: Never again. Never.

Roz looks around and sees a few loose stones. She walks over, grabs them and brings them over and plants some around Lavender’s body. Once a complete circle was made around Lavender’s body, Roz reached in and closed Lavender’s eyes and mouth. She looked down at her associate and formed a fist. Roz looked up, spun around and walked out of the catacombs. 

Once she arrived back up to the main floor, she stormed through the halls. She silently passed by the seer grimm and drew her blade and cut the Grimm in half, killing it. She proceeds to not break her stride and walks throughout the halls of the Citadel all the way to the main hanger. She looks around and is able to see a bullhead off in the far corner. 

Roz walks over, enters the bullhead and swiftly takes off. She emerges from the hanger and slowly moves the ship to adjust a heading to Vacuo. She looks out from her cockpit window and sees Stier standing in the hanger bay, watching her. She glares a little and takes off. Stier glares some more as from a different point on the Citadel, a different seer watches the ship take off. 

The seer clicks a little. Inside the meeting chamber, Onyx’s eyes open wide. He glares a little and looks forward. 

Onyx: Alert the troops at Frollo. Tell them to shoot down all aircraft until they find her body. 

The seer clicks as the troops are alerted. Lavenza looks out from his lab window and smiles. 

Lavenza: Finally. A logical reason to dispose of her. (Smirks) All too easy.

In the meanwhile, Roz continues to fly off and away from the Citadel, officially leaving Onyx and the Lower Cabal for good. 

Scene cuts to black.


	11. Coin Flip

After the opening, some screams of Grimm are heard until a bullhead comes into view. The ship banks to the right and fires and guns down a Nevermore. The ship continues to fly as in zooms into the cockpit to show Elsa Inverno piloting. She presses a few buttons along the top of the cockpit and fires again, taking out a small flock of Nevermores. 

Elsa: Bazaar! Number?

Along the ground, Bazaar Hiltzaile is seen with the members of Team WIOW, fighting off more Grimm. He kicks one across the head and fires his crossbow at two centipede like Grimm before he looks up to the bullhead.

Bazaar: I could 250. 

Elsa: Copy that!

Widow throws out her rope dart and pulls a Grimm to the ground as Willow runs past it and cuts its head off. Olive uses her semblance to have a few bits of plant life to tie down a Grimm. However, it’s not much. Before the beast could attack her again, a gunshot goes off. Magnus is seen, covering Olive as Stonewall slowly backs up to him. 

Magnus: Sir?

Stonewall: Keep up the covering fire. We need to hold this spot until reinforcements arrive.

Ireland: Easier said than done!

The two look over to see Ireland Sarga whack two Beowolves in the head. She flips over one and snaps its neck and Magnus shoots the other in the head.

Ireland: They just keep coming. 

Stonewall: We need a different approach. Try to cut them off. At least enough to buy us some time. 

Elsa could hear the chatter on comms. She looked to see the ridge where the Grimm were coming from. She banked again and fired along the ground to clear some of the huntsmen from the beasts. 

Elsa: Solomon! Regen!

The side doors to the ship opened and Solomon Noir and Regen Wilhelm stepped out with their guns aimed and loaded. They fired together at the ridge, with Regen’s rocket launcher doing the most damage. The walls of the ridge shattered and rocks came tumbling down, forming a barrier to keep the Grimm out a little while longer. The two then set their sights down along the ground and began to provide air support to the rest of the team. 

Elsa looked down and saw that the 250 Grimm had been reduced down to a few dozen. She sighs again and signals to Solomon and Regen to jump out. They do so and leap out of the ship. Solomon forms his hammer and slams it onto the ground. Olive runs over and leaps off of the hammer and jumps onto the back of an Ursa. She jumps off of it and spins through the air and cuts the head of the monster off. 

Solomon runs up and pushes the corpse up to use as a small shield against a few more Grimm. Widow runs past the shield and flips around, cutting the Grimm to pieces and clearing a path. Bazaar fired an arrow past Widow’s head and killed another Grimm. He turned back and walked down the path provided and fired off at different Grimm, killing them all instantly. Bazaar looks back at the group and sees most of if not all of the Grimm had been cleared out. In doing so, he goes to an earpiece.

Bazaar: Isaac? How is the front lines?

Over the ridge, a giant pool of lava melts away at Grimm as Isaac walks through it. He unleashes two massive slashes and cuts some Grimm down. He hears rumbling and a King Taijitu emerges and lunges at him. Isaac waves his arm in front of his sword and heats it up. He yells and cuts through the mouth of the Grimm, killing it. He converts his sword into its shotgun form and shoots the severed head clean off. 

Isaac spins around and fires two rounds at two more Beowolves before looking around his current setting. 

Isaac: Clear. We are good to go.

Elsa: Copy that. Alerting the LT.

Isaac turns back to the main ridge and sees a BIC cruiser land where the rest were stationed. He begins to walk back to the clearing to regroup. BIC security forces are seen working on a scientific tower with a radar dish and some other gear. Other troopers from Vacuo arrive and begin to take up arms and defend the area. A few more bullheads come in and drop some iron walls along to provide cover. 

Elsa lands the bullhead and slowly walks over to the group.

Elsa: These teams will be able to push into our forward operating post. 

Bazaar: Do we know how close we are to the fort?

Elsa: Roughly a click and a half. Maybe a little closer. 

Bazaar: We should station some more here then. The closer we are, the more damage will be dealt to us.

As Elsa and Bazaar are talking, Isaac slowly walks forward a bit. He squints a little as he sees a bullhead flying away from some Nevermores. He keeps watching as he sees the ship spin around and fire at the Grimm. It kills one but the other is able to attack and shoot it down. Isaac’s eyes widen as the bullhead falls to the ground, smoke emerging and the ship is slowly crashing. 

Isaac: HIT THE DECK!!!

Isaac and the others leap away and cover their heads as the bullhead flies just over them and right under the ships. It slams into the sands and a few small explosions go off from its engines and wings. Isaac gets up and runs over to the dune. Bazaar and Stonewall join in and run over to the ship. They look around to see if anyone survives. From the cockpit, Isaac sees Roz slowly stumble out of the flames and gets into view. 

He is stunned, unable to even move. Bazaar is in shock as well until Elsa walks up to join them. Roz looks up at them as the three look down at her. Elsa grabs her sword and nearly draws it until Bazaar stops her.

Elsa: What are you doing? She is an enemy of the entire planet! We need to-

Isaac walks past the two and slowly down to Roz. Bazaar looks at Elsa and shakes his head, telling her no. The two just stand there and watch as Isaac slowly walks over to her. Roz takes a step back from Isaac once he approaches. In response, Isaac stops. The two just look at one another, as they each move away from the overall group. Isaac reaches out his hand to Roz, silently giving her the offer. 

Roz: Isaac…

Isaac: Hey. (Looks up and back to the ship) Grimm didn’t take kindly to you.

Roz: Attracted to negativity. 

Isaac: Or you were being targeted?

Roz looks back to Isaac in the face. She couldn’t even formulate a retort, stepping over her own words as she struggles to even think of a proper answer. As she tries to find an answer, Isaac slowly walks up to her and places both his hands on her shoulders. 

Isaac: Did you…

Roz just nods, already knowing what he was about to ask. Isaac places a hand on her head and slowly moves his hand down to the back of her neck. Isaac slowly pulls her into a hug and holds her tightly. Roz slowly hugs Isaac back, her arms shaking a little as they come around his back. Bazaar slowly begins to walk down to join his old teammates. The members of WIOW and SSMR look out and and see the three reunite. 

Elsa glares a little as Bazaar reaches the two. Roz sees Bazaar and slowly breaks away from Isaac. She holds up her arms, surrendering to them. Elsa walks down, not smiling at Roz like Isaac and Bazaar. She slams some cuffs onto Roz’s wrists and glare at her.

Elsa: I should kill you. But you are more valuable alive. 

Elsa pushes Roz back and up to the ridge. Isaac glares at Elsa as Bazaar places a hand on his shoulder for support.  
________________________________________________  
Inside the BIC ariship, Roz is seen in a cell, still handcuffed. Down the hall, is the rest of RBIE, standing, waiting and talking. 

Bazaar: I believe she is well contained. 

Elsa: We should just put a bullet in her and get it over with.

Isaac: Uh, hello. My name is forgiveness, have we met?

Elsa: Just like how you forgive your parents. Both sets of them.  
Isaac: Alright, alright. Fair point. Still, we need to think of something. She surrendered willingly and broke down in front of us. 

Elsa: It could have been staged. 

Isaac: The Grimm did shoot her down. 

Elsa: The grimm shoot everyone down. 

Bazaar: You really hate her, don’t you?

Elsa: She betrayed us. She joined a terrorist organization, joined a demi-god hellbent on the destruction of the world, attacked Beacon, slaughtered countless. Lead a charge against us for months and now...now she comes back, tears in her eyes saying she was wrong. A thing like that doesn’t just happen. I don’t buy a single bit of it. 

Isaac: Well…(To Bazaar) What do you think?

Bazaar: I want to believe her. But I have reason to be skeptical. She has given us no reason as to why to trust her. 

Isaac: Then let’s make a reason.

Isaac walks down the hall and looks directly at Roz. 

Isaac: What is he planning? What are his movements? 

Roz: He...he hasn’t told me everything. 

Isaac: What do you mean?

Roz: He...he keeps those he deems has...unloyal in the dark most times. My orders were to ensure the completion of Fort Frollo and to strike against Vacuo forces. Stier had been working through the kingdom, pulling raw resources in and working on the construction of a forward operating base. 

Isaac: So that fort was meant as a forward command.

Roz: You found it?!  
Isaac: Flying up north to do recon, you will find it eventually. I mean, it is a massive tower. 

Roz: Fair point. 

Isaac: What else?

Roz: There was a traitor among us. Someone was sabotaging the construction efforts. He was torturing our men, draining them of everything. So, we attacked the Wolf Tribe. Killed their top. Next thing you know, I hear Lavenza talking about Onyx killing someone in the catacombs. Head on down and...Lavender’s dead. So, I just...I just couldn’t anymore. I left. And I never looked back. 

Isaac: Do you know what his next move is?

Roz: Outside of him launching a massive strike against Vacuo soon, I don’t know. With the saboteur dead, I wouldn’t be surprised if he sped up the attack plan. He also apparently has a new recruit. An assassin. Damson has been hunting down huntsmen across Vacuo for weeks now. He’s taking out your army, bit by bit. 

Elsa and Bazaar now walk over. Elsa still glares down at Roz while Bazaar has a more neutral expression on his face.

Elsa: Any other method?

Roz: Fusion cannons. Something Dr. Watts and Dr. Volt had been working on...along with Damson’s other personality. 

Elsa: What does it do?

Roz: Takes all metal within a 10 mile range, clumps it together then (snaps) destroys it like that. Gone in an instant. 

Elsa: And his first target?

Roz: I don’t know. I don’t even know when he is going to attack! I...I just-

Isaac: It’s ok. Don’t worry. You’ve told us enough. 

Isaac smiles at Roz and softly pushes the others away from the cell. 

Isaac: We need to get back to Vacuo. Tell everyone. 

Elsa: That will make our time table even smaller now. 

Isaac: We don’t have much of a choice. It will have to end it here and now, or we lose it all. There cannot be another option any longer. 

Bazaar: I agree. So then, are we ready?

Isaac: If the troopers are stable?

Elsa: They are.

Isaac: Then let’s get out of here. 

Along the edge of the ship, Solomon and Stonewall watch as the ship ascends upward. They watch as the ship flies back to Vacuo, away from the BIC troopers.   
______________________________________________________  
Inside Vacuo’s city hall, Apatite is walking down the hall with a few papers. However, he stops himself and glances around silently. He turns around and sees no one else in the hall. He slowly turns back around and sees the Plague Doctor standing right in front of him. Apatite steps back slightly as he looks at the Doctor. 

Apatite: Uh...can I help you, sir?

The Plague Doctor doesn’t hesitate and throws out his chain and wraps it around Apatite’s arm. He lunges forward and kicks the councilman in the face and chest before back flipping away. He runs up and tries to use the hook of his chain as a means to attack. Apatite barely dodges, but his right arm is cut open. Apatite grips the wound until the Plague Doctor and runs up and wraps his chain around Apatite’s neck and chest.

The Doctor pulls on the chain and flips Apatite into a wall, destroying most of it. He then flips and kicks Apatite’s chest and sends him completely through the wall. Before Apatite could get back up, the Plague Doctor runs up and grabs the chain and pulls, throwing the councilman into another wall. Apatite slowly sits up and barely dodges the chain from hitting him in the face twice. Apatite spins around and sees his gauntlets. In a quick second, he rolls over, grabs them and blocks a kick from the Plague Doctor. 

Apatite pushes back and quickly gets to his feet. Without hesitation, Apatite runs in and tackles the Plague Doctor and slams him on a desk within the office. He throws two punches at the Doctor’s mask but the latter evades one punch and kicks the councilman in the face. The Plague Doctor rolls backwards and gets off of the desk. As he looks over, he sees Apatite smash half of the desk and pick it up and throws it at the man. 

The Plague Doctor ducks under it and sees Apatite running in for a punch. The Plague Doctor raises his arms for a fight. 

Outside the office, Violet is walking through the halls until she hears a loud bang. She runs towards the sound, looking around until she comes across her father’s office. She sees Apatite bring thrown throw the wall again and some dust clouding the hallway. Violet runs up, extends her staff and sees the Plague Doctor walking out. Violet lunges in but the Doctor takes a step back and let the girl land away from him. 

Violet spins around and tries to hit the Plague Doctor with her staff but he catches it and slowly looks down at her. Violet smirks a little and fires a round from her staff, causing enough force to make the Doctor let go and allows Violet to spin around and attack again. She slammed her staff back towards the Plague Doctor’s face, but he raised his arm and blocked the attack once again. 

The Plague Doctor slowly raised his right hand and made a “sh” movement with his index finger. He reached forward and grabbed Violet and pushed her to the ground. He stomped on her stomach, raised his chain and threw it down towards Violet’s neck.

Scene cuts to black.


	12. Memorial of Damnation

After the opening, Fred is seen inside his room within the temple. He fluffs up his pillows and place them around his bed. Tempus has given Fred several comforters which are folded up on his bed to assist him in sleep or mediation. Fred looks around and sees about 12 candles around his room. He raises his hands and looks at them. He looks down at the Scorch Blades resting on a table. He sighs and looks back at his hands. 

Slowly, his arms form into the gauntlets of his Guardian Armor. Flames erupt from his hands but are quickly controlled. His eyes light up but quickly return to normal. He takes another deep breath and from his fingers, ten little flames emerge. He softly pushes the air and the flames shoot off and light ten of the candles. Two more flames form along his index fingers and he lights the last two candles. Fred smiles at his work. 

He closes his eyes with a sly smile and begins to take in some deep breaths. When he opens his eyes again, Fred is inside the Guardian Plane. He looks around and takes a few steps and waves his arm to pull the world around him. He stops on a mountain and sees his father standing there, looking out across the plane. Fred walks up and stands next to Abraham. 

Abraham: Nice to see you again.

Fred: Likewise. 

Abraham: Not that I am complaining, but what brings you back here?

Fred: I’m assuming you and the others saw that “mind-test” I was in?

Abraham: Ah. That. Yes, that was an adventure alright. For certain. 

Fred: Yeah. Thanks for that bit there.

Abraham: So, what did you want to talk about with that?

Fred: I need some mental gymnastics. Something that could keep me in check and...and something that can make sure I never go down that path again. I just couldn’t. 

Abraham looks back across the plan. He sighs as the light from behind the two increases in light. Fred turns around and sees Primus slowly landing behind them both. Abraham slowly turns back and the two Scorchs glare a little as they see Primus. 

Fred: What do you want?

Primus: I want to help.

Abraham: Considering how you’ve been trying to break free and burn the planet for thousands of years, I somehow doubt you would have such a change of heart. 

Primus: I can understand your concern. But do note that the end war is coming. And it is coming fast. We no longer have a choice. It is either the Guardians die, or Onyx does. And I want to help in the latter’s possibility. Besides, I believe the world has put young Frederic through enough in these past few months. 

Fred: So then, what is your proposal?

Primus walks past the two. His eyes light up and he raises his hands and slowly pulls them downward. From the skies of the Plane, Primus’ island descends downward. Primus begins to fly up again and offers a hand to Abraham and Fred. Fred sighs and transforms into his Guardian Armor and flies up after Primus with Abraham following suit. 

The three enter a large chamber and Fred looks around to see book after book. He flies forward and stops at one and pulls it off and begins to go through it. 

Primus: Teraix, the Gluttonous. Rather large, but a kind soul. 

Fred: Seems to be the running theme.

Primus: Tell that to Erebus or Maldozea. 

Fred chuckles slightly. He then begins to look upward to the mass that was Primus’ library. Books about strategy, business, war, writing, literature of the time. Auto biographies. 

Fred: I feel like I’m back at Beacon. 

Primus: Oz always wanted to educate. 

Fred: Well, Beacon was a university. This is…it makes me feel like home. 

Primus: I’m happy you feel that way. 

Fred: So…you have a copy of each one? 

Primus: Indeed. Every Guardian from me to you has a copy of their findings, their lives all in here. 

Fred continues to walk forward, seemingly in awe of it all. Abraham places a hand on his shoulder and nods at his son. Fred flies upward and begins to go through some of the books. However, he stops himself after a while and slowly lowers himself back down to the ground. 

Fred: I know my physical form will still be getting rest...but still. I do not have all the time in the world to read up on all of these. 

Abraham: Then I shall assist you. 

Fred looks at Abraham a bit confused.

Abraham: I could read some of these. Take their lessons and train you in the Plane along with Primus. Double the take away and still get your training in with Tempus. What says you...Guardian?

Fred is a bit surprised by the title. He looks at both Primus and Abaraham, still in shock and surprise. However, he quickly gains a noble look and nods at the two. They look at one another and nod as well. 

Abraham: Then let’s get started.

Fred smiles slightly and takes off. He grabs one of the books and begins to read as Abraham does the same. Primus begins to move some fire around and make a small arena so they could all train on. Fred smiles a bit and looks back at Primus. Primus looks back up and Fred returns his gaze to the book at hand. As Fred is reading, some movement catches his eye. He looks up and sees other Guardians are now within the library. 

Fred: What in the-

Solus, son of Primus appears before him. He chuckles and places his hands on Fred’s shoulders. 

Solus: Amazing work, young one! 

Fred: What is-

Solus: You cannot build here without work from the Forgemaster! Ha ha!

Solus flies down and begins to assist his father with the construction efforts. Fred looks around and sees more and more Guardians are flying around, doing what they can to assist him. Different Guardians are helping Abraham, a few more are working with Primus to building a practice arena. A small dart of fire whizzes past Fred’s head. He turns around to see Artemis and Leon Clam. 

Artemis: What’s wrong kid? Just saw a ghost?

Fred sighs a little and smiles up at the two.

Leon: If you want. We could get you started on some combat practice. 

Fred looks down and back up at the two warriors. He smirks and summons some fireballs and throws them at the two. They laugh as Fred chases after them, trying to hit them both. From a distance, Maldozea is seen leaning against a pillar.

Maldozea: This is pathetic. If none of us could kill him, why should this runt?!

A hand slapped him in the back of the head. Maldozea looks over and sees it was Erebus.

Erebus: Don’t you see? We do good for the kid, it means we get a chance out. 

Maldozea smirked until he heard a loud cough. Behind them both is Ezekiel Clam. He has a stern look to his face and points to the library. 

Maldozea: You know…for someone called “the generous” you really are an-

As Maldozea turns around, he sees Mathias Scorch and Frederic Scorch I standing before him. Each grab Maldozea’s arms.

Maldozea: Alright, alright! Calm down, I’m going!

The group flies off to go and assist the rest.   
_________________________________________________  
Back in Vacuo, Mason slams his fist down onto a metal wall. He has an angered face on as Evie, Isaac, Elsa, Bazaar, Theodore, Amethyst, and March and April Fumi are present. They look at him with some shock while Theodore has a neutral look on his face. 

Mason: Are you...damn it! They were planning this for weeks! 

Evie: Mason! Calm down! Now!

Mason: They played us! Right into their hands! 

Evie: MASON!!!

Theodore: General. Keep a cool head. 

Amethyst: We have an insider now. We can get information from her and formulate a movement and attack teams. 

Elsa: Assuming she speaks the truth. 

Isaac: I believe we can trust her. 

April: Isn’t this the same woman that broke your heart and lead an assault against Beacon Academy. 

March: She was a firm ally of our enemies. I’m not so certain.

Theodore raises a hand and stops the debate. 

Theodore: Whether we want to or not, this is a rare opportunity. Onyx will either send troopers to kill her or rescue her. The latter much less likely than the former. And if she left on her own free will, then it is safe to assume she has left them for good. Those fusion cannons will be our biggest threat outside of the Cabal themselves. A small infiltration team will be able to take them down from the inside. 

March: In other words, you want someone with infiltration experience and black-ops. You want my daughter in there.

Theodore: Along with the rest of FLME and VILE, yes. 

Evie: They are just-

Amethyst: Are you all blind! I’m not so certain about the other kingdoms, but in my, if your children cannot fight, they have no reason to be alive! These kids have grown! These kids are Huntsmen and Huntresses! Let them do their jobs! 

Isaac: Last time I did that, I lost my brother. 

Bazaar: Isaac. We cannot let that stop us. 

Mason: I’m done sending my kids into the fires.

Ember: AHEM!!!

The adults all turn around and see Ember, Leia and May looking at the group. 

Leia: We’re in. 

May: No exceptions. 

March: May. This is a warzone and-

May: Excuse me? How many large scale battles have I been in now?

Ember: Well, let’s see. Our raid on the White Fang, that was like twice. Battle of Beacon. Battle of Fumi Cove. Battle of the Mistral Temple. Raid on Lavenza’s Lab. Battle of-

Amethyst: Kids’ got a point. So, if they are in, I say we allow them to take part! 

Theodore: Agreed!

Bazaar: Three votes. Along with our teams. 

Elsa: I agree. 

Mason and Evie look at one another. Evie smiles and places a hand on his wrist, and rubs his hand a little. He sighs and is about to answer but the ground shakes a little bit. Everyone looks around and they look back into Roz’s cell through the window. She has a look of fear on her face as Amethyst summons a portal and leaps through to Apatite.   
___________________________________________________  
Amethyst lands and looks around. She sees Violet is inside the wall and sees Apatite is down the hall, bloody as the Plague Doctor kicks him in the face. He is about to kill Apatite. Amethyst takes out her bow and fires at the back of the Plague Doctor. The Plague Doctor spins around moves his head to avoid the arrow. Amethyst yells and runs in to attack. She converts her bow into a staff and spins it around and slams it against the Doctor’s arm. 

The Plague Doctor flips over her and brings his chain down and loops it around her neck. Amethyst sees the chain and bites down on it. She thrusts her staff back and hits the Doctor in the chest. He grabs her staff and she can see some blood dripping from his hand. He pulls back on the staff and brings her closer to him. Amethyst goes to elbow the Doctor but he grabs her elbow. 

Lighting hits the Doctor’s back as Violet slowly gets up. The Plague Doctor pulls back along his chain and flips Amethyst into a wall. He throws the chain down towards Violet. Violet rolls sideways to avoid the attack. She uses her staff and fires rounds at the Plague Doctor. The Plague Doctor leaps back and evades the fire. He throws his chain along the wall and pulls, getting him to run along the wall. Violet fires and shoots the hook, causing the Plague Doctor to flip forward. 

The Plague Doctor goes in for a diving kick and tries to hit Violet. Violet steps back and raises her knee to try and strike him. The Plague Doctor grabs her knee and blocks the hit. Violet fires from her staff and causing it to be thrown from her hand and bounce off of the wall to hit the Plague Doctor. He spins around and catches the staff in his left hand. With his right, he takes his hook and spins backwards to hit her. Violet raises her arms and is punches back due to the force of the hit. 

The Plague Doctor runs up to her and tries to attack again, using his hook like a sword. Violet ducks and dodges the blade but the Plague Doctor uses her staff and slams her into the wall. She grabs her staff and uses her semblance and electrocute the Plague Doctor some more. The Plague Doctor drops the staff and leaps back, ready to attack again. 

Violet leaps back and swings her staff, trying to hit him again. She thrusts her staff at the assassin in different angles and directions, trying to throw the man off guard. However, the Plague Doctor is able to evade all and block some of the strikes. He blocks one and attempts to kick Violet in the chest once again. 

She leaps back a little as the Doctor runs over to her. He thrusts his palm upward into her chin and launches Violet upward. He wraps his chain around her and pulls her down to the ground, forming a small crater. He pulls again and throws Violet into the left wall, forming another crater. 

Violet’s eyes open as she grabs the chain and uses her semblance to light it up. The Plague Doctor pulls back and frees Violet from the chain and is slightly electrocuted. He slowly gets back up and looks over to her. He turns around and sees Apatite slowly getting back up with help of Amethyst. The two of them look up and see the Plague Doctor looking at them. 

Apatite: Did he just kick our daughter’s ass?

Amethyst: I think this bastard just did. 

Apatite cracked his neck and runs forward as Amethyst fired some more arrows. The Plague Doctor spins his chain around in an X shape motion, deflecting the arrows. He launches the chain towards Apatite’s head, who rolls forward and throws an uppercut. The Plague Doctor grabs his hand and stops the punch. He spins behind Apatite and wraps the chain around his neck and begins to strangle the councilman. He spins back around just as Amethyst fires another arrow. 

The arrow hits Apatite in the knee, making his aura shimmer, almost shattering all together. The Plague Doctor leans back, crushing Apatite under him. He rolls back and grabs his chain and swings it towards Amethyst. It wraps around her bow and he pulls on it, bringing her back to him. Apatite grabs the Plague Doctor around his stomach and throws the assassin into a wall. The Plague Doctor pulls himself from the wall but gets punched in the back by Apatite. 

The Plague Doctor spins and avoids another punch and kicks Apatite in the chin. Amethyst runs along the wall and kicks the Doctor across the face and lands along the ground. The Plague Doctor looks up and leaps back a bit to avoid Amethyst from stabbing him in the back. Amethyst runs forward and lunges down but the Plague Doctor grabs her staff and pushes back against her. The two keep each other pinned until Amethyst moves a bit to the left and tries to kick him.

The Plague Doctor grabs Amethyst’s foot and throws it to the side to get the huntress off balance. The Plague Doctor kicks Amethyst in the face and punches her in the face twice. The Plague Doctor pulls her up and punches her in the face again. Amethyst tumbles back a little and the Plague Doctor walks up to her a bit and raises his chain to strike her down. Amethyst’s aura shatters and she is about to be killed.

In a quick moment, Violet is seen behind the Plague Doctor. She slowly stands back up and yells, shooting out her semblance and almost grabbing the Plague Doctor in a hand of lighting. Violet yells as her purple aura is shimmering more and more as she lifts the man. She slams the Plague Doctor onto the floor. She throws him into the walls next, back up to the ceiling, back to the ground and back into the wall, forming a hole and knocking the assassin out of the building completely. 

Violet’s aura shatters. She falls to her knees, panting as she slowly looks up to her parents. She smiles as she looks at them both. 

Violet: How’s Dad?

Amethyst: He’s alive. Barely. 

Apatite: I’m fine, Sweetheart! (Both girls turn around to look at Apatite) I can still go!

Violet smiles a bit. Amethyst smiles with them. She turns back to Violet and her eyes widen in fear. Behind Violet, the Plague Doctor emerges from one of his portals. Amethyst stands up and runs full speed towards Violet as the Doctor gets his chain ready and throws it towards Violet. 

Amethyst reaches Violet, grabs her and throws her off to the side. Just as Violet finally realizes what is happening, she sees the Plague Doctor’s chain aimed right for Amethyst’s chest. Violet yells and reaches out to her mother as the chain slams into her chest, killing her. Apatite’s eyes widen in shock and horror as his wife is killed right before his eyes. The Plague Doctor pulls back and rips the chain straight out of the huntress. 

Before the Plague Doctor could continue the killings, Ember, Leia and May run into the hall and look at him and open fire, not even hesitating. Three bullets hit the doctor and he takes off his hat and backflips into a portal from it to escape. Violet gets up and walks over to her mother’s body. At this point, the rest of Team VILE arrive. Ing gasps and runs in. Eadwulf takes off his sunglasses and looks at his teammates with total sadness. 

Llew stabs the ground and stands in silence. Leia looks on and slowly turns back to see Ember and May help Apatite to his feet. He slowly begins to tear up and falls to the ground, crying. Violet falls to the ground before her mother and yells out in pain as well.   
______________________________________________________________  
Back at the Citadel, Onyx stands once again, looking over the scenery. The Plague Doctor portals in and lands behind him. Onyx glances back to the Doctor who pulls up a picture of Amethyst with a red “X” over her face. 

Onyx: You are certain?

The Plague Doctor nods. 

Onyx: Excellent. And Apatite.

The Plague Doctor, shakes his head. 

Onyx: (Sighs) Very well then. The message has been sent out. They know now. We are ready for the next phase. 

Scene cuts to black.


	13. Rallying Forces

After the opening, Amethyst’s body is shown inside a casket. She is walked down the road of Vacuo with Theodore leading the procession. The other members of the Vacuo Council walk behind him with Apatite in the middle. On either side of the road are people watching as she is processed down the road. Behind the body is Violet, Blue and Nero with Team VILE as well. Professor Sienna Clayton is also seen in the procession. After walking out the a large field, the only bit of grass for miles, the procession walks in and stops at a small pit. 

Theodore closes the casket and slowly lowers the body into the pit. Both Nero and Blue tremble a little, but do nothing other than stand next to the grave. Ing places a hand on Nero’s shoulder. Nero looks up to Ing as the older teen nods and gives him a slight smile, trying to comfort him a little bit. Eadwulf does a similar thing for Blue, but he keeps with the melancholy look. Eadwulf looks next to him to see Llew standing with her head down as well. He looks across from himself and sees Team FLME with Mason and Evie. At the base of the pit is March, April, Isaac, Bazaar and Elsa. 

Lastly, at the very head is Violet with her father. Both watch as the casket is slowly buried beneath the earth. Theodore slowly walks over to the eldest Eclairages and places a hand on each of their shoulders and nods. Apatite nods back and slowly takes the center of the head. Violet steps to the side to let him assume the position.

Apatite: Thank you. She would have loved this. And she would be honored. 

Apatite takes in a deep breath and looks up, keeping his head held high.

Apatite: I know I am not the most well liked person, but I try to make this kingdom safe! And dammit I intend to do that, through and through. These killings have been occuring all throughout the kingdom! From military officials, troopers, refugees...huntsmen and huntresses. But no more. These bastards out there, they want war. And we will give them as such. These killings have no more meaning outside of demoralizing us. Breaking us! Well, I say no more! We are Vacuo! We have allies from across the world! We are all warriors! We are united! For survival! For honor! For avenging our brothers and sisters! And if these bastards wanted us angry, then got us angry. So then, we shall save this country, once and for all.

Across the crowd, everyone looks around at each other. A fist then rises in the air. Everyone looks to see it is Mason, raising his fist in support. The members of the Wolf Tribe present do the same as does Evie. Theodore is next to join in as do the other Vacuo Council members. Ember, Leia, May join in after Team VILE does. The entire crowd then slowly joins in, all raising their fists in a sign of solitude. 

Apatite slowly lowers his hand in shock as more and more people from across Vacuo show their support. He slowly begins to nod as he bites his lower lip to hold back some tears. He looks down at Amethyst’s grave and nods again.

Apatite: (To himself) Nice work, honey. You always could bring the best out of everyone.

Apatite looks back to see the entire city joining in, one hand at a time. The people of Vacuo were ready to fight.   
_________________________________________________  
Inside the Citadel, Onyx sits at the head of the meeting chamber. In their original seats are Damson and Dr. Volt. Stier now sits where Shadow used to. The four all sit in silence as the Plague Doctor walks into the room and takes Roz’s seat. Damson looks at Onyx and then to the door. 

Damson: Where is Ms. Quarzo? She seems to have run astray. 

Stier: She left in a bullhead about two days ago.

Damson: Really?! (Snickers) I had no idea. I was getting dinner.

Stier: We get it, you’re a cannibal, you sick freak.

Damson growled as Onyx raised a hand. 

Onyx: Does anyone know where she is?

The four look at one another. The Plague Doctor stands up and reaches into his cloak and pulls out three pictures. He slides them along the table to Onyx. He takes them and looks. He sees Roz’s crashed bullhead. Her surrendering to Isaac and her being taken away into custody. 

Onyx: So, it would seem dear Ms. Quarzo has turned tail and ran. Very well then. She is now an enemy of the state. And she will be treated as such. With the assassination of Amethyst Eclairage, I would not be surprised if the children act more quickly than we believe they could. Which means they would more than likely strike at Fort Frollo. 

Lavenza: So, we reinforce the fortress. Bring everything up and online and annihilate that city here and now. 

Onyx: I agree.

Stier: So. No more holding back? It’s about damn time.

Onyx: And I agree with you. It is my fault that we have slowed our progress. But Fort Frollo’s construction was needed. As were the fusion cannons. We have squeezed this territory for all it is worth. Now, we need only bring the people under our wills. 

Stier: They’re Vacuoan. You really think they won’t go down without a fight?

Onyx: I’m hoping they have a fighting force. It makes the victory all the more rewarding. 

Stier: Speaking of which, wouldn't you find it best to reward your loyal with your plans. It’s getting more and more aggravating not knowing what is happening rather than knowing everything. 

Onyx: Colonel...is your strike team ready?

Stier: Excuse me?

Onyx: Your strike team that was meant to invade Vacuo. Is it ready?

Stier: They’ve been ready for weeks. I have kept them off of front line operations and have ordered them to-

Onyx: Good. As long as they are alive and ready. 

Damson: Uh, Master? (Onyx looks over to him) I do not see a reason to have a strike force anymore. 

Onyx looks at Damson with a neutral stare. Damson gulps silently and looks around, trying to find someone who would help him. Onyx slowly looks over to Dr. Volt. 

Onyx: Dr. Volt, is Project: Judicator complete?

Lavenza: I have more than 300 Grimm mutated and at the ready. I have 700 more which are currently in the mutation process. 

Onyx: Good. Plague, bring the completed Grimm to Fort Frollo. Have them inside the lower decks of the fortress with the other Grimm. I want those 700 ready and armed to the teeth! 

Both Lavenza and the Plague Doctor nod in agreement. 

Onyx: Colonel, how many troops do we have left in the Ombre Army?

Stier: Outside the strike team, only about 100 left. Lieutenant Sandur and I want to keep as many troops away from the fight as possible. 

Onyx: I understand. Ship count?

Stier: About three left. Armaments are completely gone as are patrol vehicles. Trains are virtually gone as well. Rail lines belong back to Vacuo. We’ll be lucky to even get land transport at all. 

Onyx: How many outside of the strike team are snipers?

Stier: About a quarter of them.

Onyx: And the rest know how to operate the fusion cannons?

Stier: They are going through training now. 

Onyx: Good. I want all your troops stationed at the Fort. Snipers to cover the fusion cannons and men on those guns. We have turrets and other defenses. The remnants go there. Only Damson and the Plague Doctor are allowed on ground level. 

The four of them all nod. Onyx stands up and cracks his neck. The others stand up with him. Onyx turns to the Plague Doctor.

Onyx: Take Damson and I to the Fort. I want Project Judicator prepared. 

The Plague Doctor nods and takes off his hat. From it, a portal opens. Onyx is the first one through, followed by Damson. Another Portal opens and Lavenza steps from the second one to his lab. The Plague Doctor turns to Stier.

Stier: I’ll rally my troops. Get ready for some more portals. If you can handle it. 

The Plague Doctor walked up to Stier and looked him in the eye. After a few more seconds of this, Stier breaks it and begins to walk off to rally everyone together. The Plague Doctor opens another portal and steps through to regroup with everyone else. 

Following the Plague Doctor, he arrives inside the remains of Lavenza’s lab. The Harrapari flies over the Plague Doctor and lands right before him. Several Ursas and Beowolves walk through, mutated. Much larger and with green highlights. The Harrapari roars and Lavenza walks over to the Plague Doctor. 

Lavenza: The Harrapari has command over this pack. They are ready to slaughter. 

The Plague Doctor nodded. He opened a few more portals and pointed forward. Lavenza patted the leg of the beast. The Harrapari roared and began to walk into the portal with the mutated Grimm. Once they are through, the Plague Doctor walks in and the doorway closes and leaves Lavenza alone.   
__________________________________________________  
Along a table, a map of Exanimum Fields is laid out in front of Mason, Evie, Ember, Violet and their teams as Theodore takes command. Apatite stands behind the headmaster. Theodore pushes up a white bishop piece and a black rook piece forward towards a large tower structure.

Leia: Doing what research I could for fusion cannons and based upon the information Roz provided to us, we know there has to be a charge time for them. And depending on blast radius and power behind that, it would safe to assume something large enough to take out the entire attack force would be roughly 6 minute charge time. 

May: Six minutes window to not die as fast. 

Leia: But there is a plus side. Or…however you want to call this side. A blast that big will require a lot of power. Now, unless Onyx goes and finds a lot of dust around here, it means we have about 6 hours to then finish the raid. 

Theodore: So, Teams FLME and VILE will conduct a small level strike against Fort Frollo. Their objectives would be to take out the fusion cannons. 

Ember: The second they see you, it will be charging up, no exception. 

Theodore: Which is why you all are launching in a hour before hand for scouting runs. You must take down these cannons. Teams WIOW and SSMR will move to assist if need be.

Ing: Assist? As in back up or-

Violet: Or unless we get killed, they swoop in and finish the job, got it. What else?

Theodore: Each General will lead their force onward to attack Frollo at all sides. We are hoping to overwhelm the enemy and dig in to the area. BIC security teams have already provided data on the terrain. Trenches and natural barriers would be easy to craft. 

Eadwulf: Sounds good. But here’s a counterpoint. What about the city? Are we taking the entire force or just a handful of troopers and ships?

Theodore: A battle this large, and with aid from Menagerie, Vale and Mistral, I believe we can afford to take much of the Defense Force. We need to take them down here and now. General Rusticus has just arrived in the city with his forces. We are ready to advance now. 

Leia: So we have our plan. We topple the fort and take out as many of his Lieutenants as possible. But what about him?

Mason: Leave that to us. 

Ember: Dad are you-

Evie: What is important now is taking out the fusion cannons, that base and taking out as many enemies as possible. If you all have the chance to kill Damson, Stier or this Plague Doctor, do so. No holding back. 

Ember: Mom. Dad. You’ll die. I can’t-

Mason: Kiddo. We said leave it to us. We never said we were going to fight him. Remember, we’re detectives. We can outsmart anyone. I mean, we’ve been outsmarting him for weeks with Farkas being the fake chieftain of the Wolf Tribe and-

A Wolf Tribe members runs into the room with a scroll.

Tribesman: Chief! Farkas, Lupo! They’re dead!

Mason’s eyes go wide as everyone slowly turns to him.

Mason: Shit. 

Apatite: Well, he’s onto you then. 

Evie: Doesn’t know where we are though. 

Ember face palms and slowly turns around. Everyone else in the group just looks at one another. Theodore sighs and rubs the back of his neck. 

Theodore: Are we in agreement?

The room all nods.

Theodore: Then we have our plans. Generals, you alert teams. Get huntsmen units ready. Ships fueled up. We have a war to win and end, here and now!

The entire table nods and walks out. On the way out, Mason and Evie are seen scolding the Wolf Tribe member with Ember and May joining in. Violet is stopped by her father as Theodore slowly walks up to them. 

Theodore: I’m sorry. It was our fault. We dragged her into this. We didn’t know…how bad things could get.

Violet: It was my fault. If I had been more cautious and-

Apatite turned Violet to face him. He knelt down and looked at her in the eyes. He slowly pushed some of her hair back.

Apatite: She loved you. And she loved the person you had become. She was proud of you. And so is everyone else. We are going to beat these guys. Not matter what. 

Apatite offered up a light smile. Violet looked at him and softly shook off his arm. She looked him in the face and shook her head. 

Violet: I’m sorry, Dad. But not today. 

Violet stepped away from her father and began to walk off, sulking a little as she left the room. Apatite watched as his daughter slowly left the room. He glanced back at Theodore who sighed and turned back to the table and looked the strategy over. 

Theodore: Get her back to the boys. Let her rest up a little.

Apatite: No kidding. I’m the father here. 

Theodore: Just do what is best. We need everyone in this fight.   
____________________________________________________  
Violet is seen walking into the Team VILE dorm room, now used as full time quarters. When she enters, she sees her teammates standing and looking at the door. She raises an eyebrow, looking at them. Ing walks over to Violet and hugs her. She is slightly taken aback, but slowly begins to hug back. Llew and Eadwulf walk over as well. Violet slowly looks up and sees her teammates looking at her. 

Llew places a hand on Violet’s shoulder, softly pushes Ing aside. Ing does so as Llew hugs Violet as well. 

Llew: It’s ok. You can let it out. 

Violet: I…

Ing: Vi. We’re here for you. Always.

Violet looks over to Eadwulf. He smiled at her and walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Eadwulf: Always. No judging. No nothing. Just let it out.

Violet slowly began to break down and finally, began to baw. Tears began to flow down her face as Violet broke down and cried. Violet gripped Llew’s clothing, leaning her head down into Llew’s shoulder. Llew softly padded Violet’s head, trying her best to soothe her. Ing was quick to join in, hugging them both from their left side. Eadwulf looks a bit awkwardly but also slowly joins in and hugs the rest of his teammates from the right. 

All three members of VILE do what they can to hug and comfort their leader as she continues to cry her eyes out. The team falls down to her knees as Violet breaks down more and more before her team. 

Violet: I’m sorry! I’m sorry I’m not strong enough and-

Ing: Sh. It’s ok. You will be. 

Violet: I...I just-

Ing: It will be some time, but you will be there. And once you are, you are going to be one of the strongest among us. I swear it. 

Violet slowly looks up and looks at her teammates. She sees each of them have a smile on their faces, agreeing to Ing’s statement. She begins to bawl again and goes back to hugging her friends as she cries some more. 

Cut to the sunsetting on Vacuo. As darkness rises, Violet’s cries only get louder and louder until the scene fades to black.   
________________________________________________  
The following morning, Fred is seen yawning and slowly waking up. He yawns a little and cracked his neck slightly. Fred yawns again and stretches a little and slowly gets off of his bed. He drops to the ground and begins to do push ups as part of the morning workout from years ago. After about twenty push ups, Fred yawns again and slowly stands back up. He starts doing some other stretches for a few more minutes. 

Around his room are organized stacks of books. Everything seems far more clean than weeks before when it was a messy pile of junk. Along a stone desk, there are several sketches of the environment around the temple. 

Fred slowly gets out of the bed and walks out of the room. He goes to a cabinet built into the temple and takes out some meat and a bottle of water. He hums and walks out to the entrance of the temple, humming a song as he walks out. Fred stops once he passes Tempus’ room. He peers inside and sees it is empty. Fred cocks an eyebrow and slowly continues to walk onward. 

Fred: (Calling out) Tempus? Hey, Tempus! Come on you crazy old man, we got work to do! (To himself) Don’t tell me he’s already up at the peak. I’m not climbing up there until breakfast. 

Fred walks out of the main entrance and sees Tempus standing along the edge of the cliff. Fred places the water into a metal bowl and tosses the meat into it. He lights a fire under the bowl and starts to cook some breakfast for the two. 

Fred: Come on, old man. We got a lot of work to get done today! 

After some more silence, Fred turns his head over to look at Tempus.

Fred: Tempus! (Fred turns his head to face his teacher) Hey! (To himself) Oh for the love of-

Fred gets up and walks over to Tempus. 

Fred: Come on, man. What? You can see death now and are trying to make sure you live a little longer?

Fred walks up to Tempus and reaches out to him. Tempus moves his arm to avoid Fred’s grasp. Fred sighs and looks out across the horizon. He squints a little and sees a large black tower along the horizon, miles away. Fred continues to look, turning his head back to Tempus after a few seconds. 

Fred: What is that?

Tempus: Your target. It’s Onyx.

Fred’s jaw drops slightly. He slowly grits his teeth and slowly turns back to Onyx. His eyes light up red and some flames slowly begin to emerge along his back and shoulders. He starts panting more and more often. Fred yells as smoke comes from his mouth. 

Scene cuts to black.


	14. Watching the Sunrise

After the opening, Fred’s Guardian state is fully on him as he is ready to fly off and fight Onyx once again. Fred grits his teeth some more, smoke beginning to come from his mouth. Storm clouds roll in from over him as some lighting begins to strike. He slowly begins to fly upward, fire engulfing much of his body. Before he shoots off, Tempus holds up his arm and stops Fred from launching himself forward. Fred glares down at Tempus as the old guru looks up to the Guardian. 

Tempus: Remember your lessons. 

Fred: Oh I’ll remember them. And I’ll burn him to the ground and-

Tempus: Frederic. Exercise patience in this context. 

Fred: Patience or no hesitation. You need to make up your mind, Tempus before I-

Primus: Frederic. 

Fred’s eyes widen a bit as he hears the voice of Primus. He glances back a little, listening to his ancestor.

Primus: Remember Frederic. What we had agreed upon. The help we are giving you. The growth you have achieved. The pain you saw yourself in. Both in this mind-test and the real world. Canary, Servus, Beacon. 

Fred: But if we hold back now, we-

Primus: And if you do go out, you will be lost. Lost to damnation! You may have been left behind before, but no longer. You will find success, I swear to you! But if you rush, if you go down too fast, never again will you find what you are looking for! Please Frederic, listen to logic! 

Fred: But he’s right there..just waiting for me. He knows I’m here!

Tempus: No he doesn’t!

Fred looks over to see Tempus giving him an equally stern look. 

Fred: He’s toying with us! He’s begging for it!

Tempus: He’s begging for you to act irrationally. Think!

Primus: Look at the complete picture. Think about your moves. Your pawns are in position. You control the center here. Not him. 

Fred: But if we-

Tempus and Primus: Frederic, stop!!!

Fred’s eyes return to normal and he slowly lowers himself back down to the rock. Fred feels Tempus place a hand on his shoulder and slowly pull Fred back. Fred does take a few steps back from the edge of the cliff, still looking out across the countryside, directly at Fort Frollo. Tempus sighs and begins to walk back with Fred to the edge of the cliff front. He places a hand on Fred’s shoulder and turns him around and starts to walk off. 

Tempus: I know you have overwhelming feelings against that man and his minions. But if the Guardians of old are assisting you, giving you more training, in time, you will be more powerful than he could ever dream of. I know it. Please, just stay calm and patient, and will achieve it all.

Fred: I don’t want to achieve it all. Just save as many lives as possible. 

Tempus: I know. Come, like you said, we have a long day ahead of us.

Tempus began to walk off, back to the temple for breakfast. Fred follows for a few steps but stops himself and slowly turns around. He glares at the structure, causing some storm clouds to form. However, he turns back and the storm clouds blow away in the wind as he walks back to Tempus and breakfast.  
______________________________________________  
Inside the FLME dorm room at Shade Academy, Leia is seen shuffling a deck of cards. After a couple of bridges, she deals the cards out to herself and May and the two begin to play a little. May is seen looking a little annoyed as Leia looks her hand over. Leia seems highly unsure as May gains a more and more bored expression on her face. Leia then smirks and May’s head perks up a little bit. Leia shakes her head and places the card back into her hand. May groans and falls forward. 

Leia: Well excuse me! Taesan is a game about strategy and patience! You move too fast, you are going to get screwed over! 

May: And if you move too slow, I am never playing this again.

Leia: Ok, ok, shesh! Uh, there we go.

Leia places down a card and May is quick to follow it and draws something from her deck. May places down a card with a cherry tree on it. 

Leia: And a cherry tree. Which gives you plus 6 to the health of all units...wow. 

May: I don’t think this is how ancient Valean people used to play. 

Leia: Hey, I don’t see you bringing up any Menagerie based games. 

May: ...I seriously hate you. 

The door opens and Ember walks into the room. He flashes a quick “hello” and runs over to a desk and types onto a computer. Both girls look at one another and then slowly back to him. 

Leia: What’s going on with you?

Ember: Just got some last minute things I need to sign off on. Troop deployment and movement, stuff like that. That’s all. Nothing too bad. 

May: If that’s the case, do you care to join us? 

Leia: I have the feeling you really don’t want to play Taeson. 

May: I don’t feel like you want to either. 

Leia: Fair point. 

Leia and May move their seats slightly to give Ember a place to pull up a chair. However, he does not and slowly turns back to them and then quickly back to the computer. 

Ember: As much as I would love to, I can’t. At least not right now. My Dad needs me to fill out some forms and get them to his desk ASAP. Plus, the coordination needed for the attack run, getting everything worked together with the Vale militia forces and-

May: Come on. Just a little bit to get your mind off of things.

Ember: By a little bit, it will become a lot. Then I get scolded and everything ends up in a total disaster and-

Ember turns around and sees May giving him a cute head tilt like an actual cat. She slowly raises up both her arms to make a cute cat like face. Ember sighs and rubs the back of his neck and raises his arms slightly. 

Ember: Alright, alright! One hand though! No more!

May giggled slightly as Ember pulled up a chair. Leia gets an actual deck of cards out and starts to shuffle them. She stops midway through and looks at the two. 

Leia: What are we even playing?

Ember: Blackjack?

May: Sure. Why not?

Leia: Blackjack it is!

Leia deals out the cards to the three of them. She looks at her teammates as Ember glances around slightly to see what he can’t pick up on. 

Leia: So, what do you guys call?

Ember: Hit.

Leia deals him another card. Ember looks at it and slowly places it with the rest of his hand. 

May: So...what’s the plan for next week?

Ember: Outside of the big strike we talked about, I’m taking a lot more naps. 

Leia: Still hard to believe. We’re actually doing this. I mean, when in the hell did you guys ever think we would ever be doing something like this? Leading armies, fighting in a massive war. A part of me feels like this was what the lead up to the Vacuo Campaign was like.

Ember: I wouldn’t get too jazzed about it. We’ll be up against far worse than ever before. Hell, we’ll be lucky to even come out alive at all. Onyx is going to be more than prepared. And a lot of this is hanging on the fact that we move in fast enough to take out the fusion cannons without being killed. 

Leia: Fair point. 

May: Still. Never saw this coming. I used to be a rat. And here we are. (Laughs a little) This honestly reminds me of the night before we raided the White Fang tunnels. Back at Vale. Our first real mission. 

Ember: (Sighs and smiles) Good times. Didn’t have to worry about all this. So...I just gotta ask. Are we sure we made the right choice here? 

Leia and May look at one another.

Leia: Meaning?

Ember: I mean...remember how I wanted to bail on this mission. What if we did? What if we all left and let Fred handle this alone and we just went home? What do you think would have happened?

May: Probably would all be dead. Or...maybe a comfy bed. Better food than military rations. 

Leia: I guess. I don’t know. I kinda like being on the front lines. It feels...right. Especially after Canary. 

Ember: Yeah. Just wanted to get your professional inputs in, that was all. 

May: Why did you even ask, anyway?

Ember: I was just curious, was all. It’s just...thinking about what could have been. 

Leia: Well, we all know if the Vytal Festival didn’t get screwed over, Fred would have kicked everyone’s asses.

Ember: Debatable. 

Leia: Debatable. He was your brother. 

Ember slowly drops his smile. Leia looks down a little as May grabs Ember’s hand. Leia sighs and places her cards down onto the table and rubs the back of her neck. 

Leia: I...I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to-

Ember: No. It’s alright. It’s been months now. Don’t worry about it. (Smiles) I think he would have been with whatever we chose. I just wished I wasn’t a dick about it. 

Leia: Hey. Language. 

Ember rolls his eyes as Leia giggles a bit. He laughs too and May joins in soon after. The three of them slowly calm down from the laughing fit as Leia slowly stands up and walks over to a fridge. She pulls out three drinks of soda and walks back over to the two and sits them down in front of everyone at the table. 

Leia: To Frederic Scorch.

Ember and May turn to each other and smile. 

Ember and May: To Fred!

They all clink their sodas and begin to chug down the drinks. Once they are finished, they slam their sodas onto the table. Ember releases a loud burp as May breaks into some laughter and she slaps Ember’s arm.

May: You are a gross, son of a gun. 

Ember: Eh, I try. Besides, gets you to laugh. 

Ember laughs and kisses May on the cheek. She rolls her eyes and laughs a little. Leia rolls her eyes and holds up her hands. 

Leia: Alright, alright. Either get a room or stop here and now. 

The three of them laugh a little. Ember places his hands on his knees and stands up and twists his back a little. 

Ember: I need to get going. But...thanks guys. It...it was fun.

Leia: Hey, leave it to some distractions to make you feel better. 

Ember smiled at the two. They smile back at him. He waves by and they wave back as he walks out of the room. May picks up the cards and Leia looks at her with a slightly confused look. 

May: Ready to keep going?

Leia smiles a bit and picks up her cards and gets ready to play Taeson again.   
_______________________________________________________________  
Back in VILE’s room, Violet is seen looking at her scroll, watching some local news about her mother’s recent death. The headliner reads “MASKED MURDERER STILL AT LARGE”. She sighs as the news goes on.

Newscaster: And still, no new information regarding the motives or the identity of the supposed “Plague Doctor” that killed General Eclairage. However, according to many military officials, the assassin was tied to the ones threatening the kingdom over the last 6 months. And now these perpetrators have invaded our city. And they have-

The doors to the room open and Violet looks back from her scroll to see her teammates walk into the room. The three looked at one another and nodded. 

Violet: Ok, what’s going on here? You three look like you are about to stab someone. 

Ing: We just think it’s best if you leave. For a few days I mean! Not that we want you to go! But you kinda need to! And well-

Eadwulf sighed and stepped in front of Ing to stop him from talking. 

Eadwulf: You need to take a leave. Just for a few days. Catch up with your brothers. 

Violet: I’m fine guys. But thanks anyway.

Eadwulf: I beg to differ completely. 

Violet cocked an eyebrow as she looked back to her teammates. Eadwulf sighed and walked forward a little more to be next to her. He goes to say something but clearly struggles to find the right words. He sighs and looks at her. 

Eadwulf: You’ve been out of it for the past 2 days. Please Violet. 

Violet: Guys-

Llew: Violet. Recuperate for a little. 

Violet was about to speak but she stopped herself. She slowly lowered her arm and sighed. Violet nodded slightly as Eadwulf gets her to her feet and slowly guided Violet to the door. She softly pushes off of Eadwulf and turned back to Eadwulf. She nods and he returns it. Violet then begins to walk off and leaves the room. 

When the doors closes, Ing turns around to the two. 

Ing: I thought we were going to be subtle?! 

Eadwulf: We tried being subtle and look where that got us! She danced around the issue and stayed lazy! We needed a direct approach. 

Ing: But that hurt her! It brought up bad memories and-

Llew: Ing. Remember those lessons of ours. We started out slow. We were able to handle the struggles of life. It is best we treat her with the same level of mental strength that we have shown you. 

Ing: I...She’s not ready. 

Eadwulf: None of us are, buddy. But we’ve grown. We can manage. (Smiles and places a hand on his shoulder) Don’t you worry about her. She’ll be fine. 

Ing sighed a little and held his head a little. But he takes a deep breath and looks up with a smile. 

Ing: Right. She’s our leader.   
_____________________________________________________  
Violet walks through the city of Vacuo. She looks around at a few restaurants and homes along the street. Gone are the bar fights and now people are getting rationed food. She looks to her left and sees a squad of troopers running through the city. She sees some civilians walking through, gone is the energy of the people and now it just seems so much “civilianized”. She turns and walks down another street.

Violet stops herself as she turns to look at a window. Inside is a picture of her mother with two candles on either side. She sigh and kept walking back home. Finally, she arrives and slowly walks up to her front porch. She goes to knock on the door but stops herself. Violet’s hand shakes a little but she takes in a deep breath and knocks on the door. 

The door slowly opens to show Nero. He looks up at his sister and she looks down at him. Violet gives him a slight smile. 

Violet: Hey buddy. 

Nero opens the door completely. The two siblings just look at one another until Nero slowly begins to cry. Violet walks into the house as Nero tries his best to hold back tears. Violet looks down at her youngest brother and kneels before him. She hugs Nero and softly pats his back.

Violet: It’s ok. Let all out, buddy.

Nero: Why...Why did Mom have to die?! Why did she have to-

Violet: I know buddy! I know!

Violet gets some tears too as she holds Nero tighter. She hears footsteps and looks up to see Blue watching them both. Violet looks over to her brother and softly pushes Nero into her shoulder some more. 

Violet: How are you handling things?

Blue: Fine. No need to worry. 

Violet: Blue. 

Violet softly pushes Nero away and stands up. She walks over to Blue as he stands his ground. Once she approaches, he looks up at her and glares a little. Violet just stares at her brother, trying to find the right words. 

Blue: Well? Now what? What do you want from me?!

Violet: Blue…

Blue: What? You want me to fight in that war with you and Dad? I’m not dying like Mom! And you can’t make me do it! I’ll sue you and I’ll beat you and I’ll…I’ll-

Violet hugs Blue. Not waiting for an answer at all and just holds him still. Blue slowly begins to tear up a little. 

Violet: It’s ok, buddy. No one is going to die. I promise you. 

Blue: You-(Sniff) You say that but I know you are lying to me! (Sniff) You’ll leave! Just like Mom! And I have to take over!

Violet’s eyes widen a little.

Blue: I’m not ready for that! I…I don’t want to! I don’t want to grow up yet! I want-

Violet: Sh, sh, sh. It’s ok. I’m here. And we’ll get through this together. I swear it. No matter what. You can always count on me. 

Blue: Mom said that too. Where is she? Where is she, Violet?

Violet: I know. But we can be better with it. I swear to you! We can and will be better than her! Than anyone before us. And I’ll be with you every step of the way. I promise you. 

Blue finally breaks down and starts to cry into Violet’s shoulder. As the two hold one another, Violet feels something hug her from behind. She slowly looks down and sees Nero hugging her waist, placing his head on his back. She wraps her arms around her siblings and pulls them closer to her, each of them crying a little. Violet “shs” them, trying her best to calm them down.   
__________________________________________________________________________  
Across Vacuo to the steps of Shade Academy, Theodore is seen with press surrounding him as he walks up to a podium. He raises his hands and silences the crowds around him.

Theodore: Ladies and Gentlemen. I thank you all for attending on short notice. Today I am here to issue an official decree. Voted on by all members of the council and all members of the military leadership. We are launching a strike against these villains. The man behind the assassination of General Eclairage is a subordinate of the man who slaughtered Canary. Those who have attacked our borders. Those behind Beacon and Haven. And now we are taking the fight to them. 

Newsreporter: General! What is it that you plan to do?!

Theodore: Those are classified details. But as of this moment, all abled bodied warriors need to fight! Fight for our people! Our kingdom! Our planet! The forces from the Defense Army and Vale will not topple these mad men alone! All help is needed. All huntsmen. Huntresses. Brothers, sisters. Everyone. We march and we take back out home!

Female Reporter: Sir, doesn’t this sound like a declaration of war on a foreign power?

Theodore: Because this invader believes this planet is his power. Not until I die, then it will be his. 

As the reporters continue to swarm him with questions, Theodore walks back inside the school. Standing there is Professor Clayton.

Sienna: A little self indulgent, don’t you think?

Theodore: I try, Sienna. 

Sienna: He’s going to come faster now. 

Theodore: Let him. We’ll be ready. Are you though. 

Sienna: I believe so. 

Theodore: Good. Keep it that way. Sienna. (She looks at him) You’ll be fine. I know you will be.

Theodore smiles at her and Sienna slowly joins him. She nods and he pats her arm and walks off. Sienna sighs a little before walking off in her own direction.  
_______________________________________________________________  
Inside Fort Frollo, more mutated Grimm are wheeled in and are pushed into cages. They all roar and slam their claws along the bars as Lavenza and the Plague Doctor move them into position. Over them on a high rise is Onyx with Damson overseeing the project. 

Onyx: Status?

Lavenza: Smoothly. Give it another three days and your legion is prepared for combat.

Onyx: Excellent. 

Onyx begins to walk off. Damson is quick to follow him as Lavenza waves his arm to guide the Plague Doctor along with another cart of Grimm. 

Damson: Uh, Master?

Onyx: Yes, Damson.

Damson: What of the boy? What of him?

Onyx stops. Damson shrinks back a little in fear as Onyx slowly turns back to him.

Onyx: No need to worry. He is fixed somewhere in Vacuo. Storm clouds were seen west bound this morning. I have a suspicion that he and I know exactly where the other lies. 

Damson: And? What should we do about it?

Onyx: For the time, a stalemate. Until Vacuo is crushed and Destruction in my hand, we will let the Guardian rest. Or suffer. Depending on what is currently happening within the recesses of his mind. 

Onyx begins to walk off and Damson quickly follows again. They enter a long hallway of Fort Frollo and see Stier positioning snipers along the halls. Each one is currently loading their rifles or over looking them, making sure they are in peak condition. 

Damson: But, you have to admit, the-uh-concern is still largely there, Master. 

Onyx: I will not deny that. But with how quickly we can strike them down, I highly doubt he’ll move until we do. 

Damson: But-

Onyx turns his head back and glares directly down at Damson. Damson gulps and slowly bows his head to the ground. 

Damson: Forgive me, Master! 

Onyx grunts and turns back to Stier.

Onyx: Status?

Stier: We’re all prepared. 

Onyx: Excellent work, Colonel. I was wise to replace Ms. Quarzo with you. Walk with me.   
Stier nods as Onyx continues to walk. Damson slowly following him and now Stier too. The three walk down to a small hanger bay with two bullheads with the Vacuo Emblem on them. Standing next to them is Gunnary Sargent Eisen. He salutes Stier and drops it once Stier salutes him back. 

Onyx: Colonel, is the team ready? 

Stier: Yes, sir. 

Eisen: Demolitions are plenty. Ammo count is high. Assault troopers are also prepared. Alpha Squad is good to go, sir. 

Onyx: Excellent. And the masks?

Stier: Also ready sir. 

Onyx: Good. Get in positions. Begin Phase 3.

Stier and Eisen nod and move to the ships. They give the order to wrap up and everyone starts to board the ships. Onyx cracks his knuckles and unclips his cloak and places his helmet on his head. 

Damson: Phase 3, Master?

Onyx: No need to fear, Damson. Just stick to your role. 

Damson: But, sire-

Onyx walks up and into a bullhead’s transport hull.

Onyx: Lavenza is in command until I return. 

Damson: But, Master I-

The doors close and the ships begin to take off. Damson reaches out as the ships fly off and away from the tower. Pan out to show that Fort Frollo is fully complete and other soldiers are mounting up defenses around the tower. Snipers, turrets and other defenses, all being prepared for war. The two bullheads fly directly southbound towards the city of Vacuo.   
________________________________________________  
Fred is seen climbing up to the peak of the temple. Once he climbs over the cliff, he looks over and sees Tempus, sitting down and meditating. Fred slowly walks over and stands besides Tempus before sitting down beside the guru. Fred looks out and sees Fort Frollo in the distance. 

Fred: You know…I was about to storm that place. 

Tempus: Really now? What stopped you?

Fred: I don’t know. Maybe it was just base instincts. Maybe it was logic. But I feel as if I wasn’t ready to go out there quite yet. 

Tempus: Oh? Explain to me.

Fred: You guys were right. I’m not ready yet. If I went in too fast then I surely get killed, for real this time. I’d be doing more harm than good. I’m not done growing yet. 

Tempus: So it would seem. But you are close. 

Fred smiles and chuckles a little bit. He looks out to the sunrise and smiles at it with Tempus.

Fred: Today’s going to be a good day. I can feel it. 

Tempus: Ah! Self-fulfilling prophecy. Well, let’s make sure it comes true. 

The two of them just watch the sunrise on another full day.

Scene cuts to black.  
________________________________  
Back at Roz’s cell, she sits in total darkness. Suddenly, the lights in her cell come on and she turns to the door as it opens. She sees Elsa walk into the room. She closes the door behind her and drops a box onto a table within the room and sits down at a chair with it. 

Elsa: Sit down. 

Roz complies and walks over. She sees it’s a deck of cards. 

Elsa: Every hand I win, you tell me more. Tell me everything that happens in that Citadel. 

Roz: I could just tell you right now and-

Elsa: We do it my way or I cut your head off. 

Roz nods as Elsa deals. 

Elsa: So…how have things been?

Roz looks at Elsa and slowly forms a smile.


End file.
